A prison (from Old French prisoun) is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime. Other terms used are penitentiary, penalty school, correctional facility, remand centre, detention centre, and jail or gaol. In some legal systems some of these terms have distinct meanings. In the United States the difference between jails or detention facilities and prisons is primarily short-term and long term. Jails and detention facilities, under city or county jurisdiction, typically hold offenders awaiting trial or are serving short sentences. Correctional facilities and prisons are more often run by the state or federal governments and house offenders serving long-term sentences. Similarly Ontario, Canada, jails and detention centres are used to hold remanded prisoners awaiting trial, sentencing or other court proceedings. Jails are typically small facilities originally designed to serve the local community and have been gradually replaced with large regional detention centres. Jails and detention centres are run by the provincial government. Once an offender is sentenced, he or she would be transferred to either a provincial correctional centre (if the sentence is less than two years less a day) or a federal penitentiary (if the sentence is two years or more).

A criminal suspect who has been charged with or is likely to be charged with criminal offense may be held on remand in prison if he is denied or unable to meet conditions of bail, or is unable or unwilling to post bail. A criminal defendant may also be held in prison while awaiting trial or a trial verdict. If found guilty, a defendant will be convicted and may receive a custodial sentence requiring imprisonment.

As well as convicted or suspected criminals, prisons may be used for internment of those not charged with a crime. Prisons may also be used as a tool of political repression to detain political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, and "enemies of the state", particularly by authoritarian regimes. In times of war or conflict, prisoners of war may also be detained in prisons. A prison system is the organizational arrangement of the provision and operation of prisons.

Noun

jail (countable and uncountable; plural jails)

1. A place for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody or detention, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding.
2. (uncountable) Confinement in a jail.
3. (slang) school

   I have to go to jail 5 days a week.

4. (horse racing) The condition created by the requirement that a horse claimed in a claiming race not be run at another track for some period of time (usually 30 days).

• (prison): Like many nouns denoting places where people spend time, jail requires no article after certain prepositions: hence in jail (“detained in a jail”), go to jail (“become detained in a jail”), and so on. The forms in a jail, go to a jail, and so on do exist, but tend to imply mere presence in the jail, rather than detention there.

Until Monopoly popularized the spelling jail in the UK and Australia, gaol was the standard spelling in these countries.

Jail is an American television series, in a format similar to COPS. It is filmed in different jails around the United States.

Unsourced Episodes

Inmate is being fingerprinted using an electronic fingerprinter.

Inmate: This is so cool!

Jailer: I know. It'll blow your mind.