Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jnestorius (talk | contribs) at 22:27, 27 June 2009 (Restrict to U.S. jails; see Talk:). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Jail" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In the United States penal system, a jail is a correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the state, including accused persons awaiting trial and those who have been convicted of a crime and are serving a sentence of less than one year. Jails are generally small penitentiaries run by individual counties and cities, though some jails in larger communities may be as large and hold as many inmates as regular prisons. As with prisons, some jails have different wings for certain types of offenders, and have work programs for inmates who demonstrate good behavior.

Jails are typically operated by city or county governments, and house prisoners who are being detained before trial or serving sentences less than one year. Approximately half of the U.S. jail population consists of pretrial detainees who have not been convicted or sentenced. Prisoners serving terms longer than one year are typically housed in correctional facilities operated by state governments. Unlike most state prisons, a jail usually houses both men and women in separate portions of the same facility. Some jails lease space to house inmates from the federal government, state prisons or from other counties for profit.

In 2005, a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 62 percent of people in jails have not been convicted, meaning many of them are awaiting trial. As of 2005, local jails held or supervised 819,434 individuals. Nine percent of these individuals were in programs such as community service, work release, weekend reporting, electronic monitoring, and other alternative programs.

In the United States, as compared to regular 'mainline' state and federal prisons, in which prisoners have already been investigated and classified by corrections personnel before being assigned to a level of security, in which many of the prisoners are committed for longer periods of time, and in which the population is on average older, jails usually house prisoners who are on average younger and have varying or unknown histories and propensities for violence or disciplinary problems. As a result, many jails operate their booking and receiving units at a relatively high level of correctional security, and also witness a disproportionately large amount of violence and disciplinary problems as compared to mainline facilities.

Jail Management

There are three main management styles common in most jails. The first and oldest style is Intermittent Surveillance. Intermittent Surveillance involves rows of cells along security corridors. These corridors are patrolled by staff providing periodic observation. Most problems occur between these intermittent patrols. The second supervisory style is Remote Surveillance. Remote Surveillance involves cells and their corresponding dayrooms divided into "pods" which are under constant supervision by jail staff from a central control room. Staff in the central control room commonly observe three to four "pods" at one time. The third and most recently conceived supervisory style is Direct Supervision. Direct Supervision involves a dayroom with numerous cells under constant and direct supervision by staff who are stationed inside the housing unit. Staff are constantly interacting with inmates and controlling inmate behavior. The success of Direct Supervision relies on the staff's ability to control this behavior and for facility management to create detention environments that facilitate the staff's effectiveness. This style is also the most cost effective of the three.

References

1. "Glossary of Terms Commonly Used in Court". The Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia. 2003-12-16. Retrieved 2007-04-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. ^ "Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005". Bureau of Justice Statistics.
3. Doris J. James, Profile of Jail Inmates, 2002, 2 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2002) available online
4. Number of US Inmates Rises Two Percent, By Elizabeth White, The Associated Press, Monday 22 May 2006
5. ^ Stephen I. Saunders, III, Direct Supervision Jails: A Management Model for the 21st Century, 1990

External links

• Brian Dawe, Behind The Walls, Corrections Connection
• Ann Coppola, View from 35,000 Feet: Prison Overcrowding, Corrections Connection
• Joe Bouchard, Daily Safety Concerns in Jails, Corrections Connection
• PrisonMinistry.net - International Network of Prison Ministries (AKA "Prison Ministry Directory")
• Criminal Procedure From Arrest To Appeal By Lester B. Orfield

• Penal system in the United States
• Jails