County prison

Need information on a County Prison? A County Prison in the United States is a place of incarceration ran by the state, city or county. County prisons, also known as a county jail or city jail, are primarily used as a place of detention for individuals awaiting trials and for people who are serving a sentence for less than one year.

A county prison is generally small but some are as large and hold as many inmates as regular prisons. Some county prisons detain men and women although they are segregated into different areas of the facility. Work programmes are often implemented by the county, city or state, to aid in the rehabilitation of the individual so that they can deal with normal everyday activities. In addition the detainee is also paying society back for their crime or misdemeanour.

Many inmates are used to supply additional labour force for the public works department. Typical work includes road and agricultural work, cleaning up litter and maintaining streets. By taking part in such schemes, inmates are rewarded with credits which can reduce their sentence and they can also gain a small amount of pay. Because a county prison generally does not detain anything from and above a medium risk individual, executions do not take place.

Most institutes offer rehabilitation schemes to aid in the detainees' development, such as adult education, wood shop training, alcohol and narcotics anonymous, religious groups and counselling. Detainees are also offered access to indoor and outdoor recreation areas and a library service within the complex.