Prisons
Webpages concerning "Prisons"
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Wikipedia-Article "Prisons"
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"Jail" redirects here. For the term as used in computer security, see jail (computer security).
A prison is a place in which individuals are physically confined and usually deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Prisons are conventionally institutions which form part of the criminal justice system of a country, such that imprisonment or incarceration is the penalty imposed by the state for the commission of 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 (see also corrections).
There are a variety of other names for prisons, such as a prison-house, penitentiary or jail (in British English and Australian English, the spelling gaol is sometimes used in a formal contexts, although this spelling is pronounced in the same fashion). There are, also, many colloquial terms for prisons — such as big house, beantown, can, clink, joint, jug, cooler, hoosegow, lockup, lockdown, "nick" and slammer — and a similar range of terms for imprisonment, including doing time, bird, porridge, working for Copper John, etc.
In the United States at least, jail is generally used for facilities where detainees are locked up for a relatively short time (either while awaiting trial or serving a sentence of one year or less upon conviction for a misdemeanor). Prison and penitentiary typically denote a place where inmates go to serve long terms after having been found guilty of a felony. In the United States, jails are usually operated under the jurisdiction of local (county) governments while prisons are operated under the jurisdiction of state or federal governments. In the state of Massachusetts, some jails are known as houses of correction. In Washington some adult prisons are called reformatories, while in other states this is reserved as a term for a prison of the juvenile justice system.
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Prisons in the criminal justice system
In the domain of criminal justice, prisons are used to incarcerate convicts, but also to house those charged with or likely to be charged with offenses. An offense is a violation of the penal law. Custodial sentences are sanctions authorized by law for a range of offenses. A court may order the incarceration of an individual found guilty of such offenses. Individuals may also be committed to prison by a court before a trial, verdict or sentence, generally because the court determines that there is a risk to society or a risk of absconding prior to a trial; such pre-trial imprisonment is known as remand. The possibility and maximal duration of remand vary between jurisdictions.
The three main functions of prisons are: punishment of individuals who transgress statutory boundaries; temporarily or permanently segregating individuals deemed dangerous to others; seeking to reduce the probability that an individual will reoffend upon release.
The nature of prisons and of prison systems varies from country to country. Common though by no means universal attributes are segregation by sex, and by category of risk. Prisons are often rated by the degree of security, ranging from minimum security (used mainly for nonviolent offenders such as those guilty of fraud) through to maximum security and super-maximum or supermax (often used for those who have committed crimes while imprisoned).
Crime and punishment is a wide, very controversial and deeply politicized area, and so too are discussions of prisons, prison systems, the concepts and practices of imprisonment; and the sanction of custody set against other non-custodial sanctions and against the capital sanction, a death sentence. Some of these issues are discussed in the by country descriptions, below.
Military prisons
Prisons form part of military systems, and are used variously to house prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by military or civilian authorities, and members of the military found guilty of a serious crime. See military prison.
Political prisons
Certain countries maintain or have in the past had a system of political prisons; arguably the gulags associated with Stalinism are best known. The definition of what is and is not a political crime and a political prison is, of course, highly controversial.
World prison populations
At least nine million people are imprisoned worldwide, though given under-reporting or lack of statistics for certain (often repressive) countries the number is likely much higher. The prison population in most countries increased significantly beginning in the 1990s.
By country, the United States prison population is the world's largest in absolute terms, at more than 2 million.[1] Both Russia and China (the latter with a population 4 times that of the USA) also had prison populations of 1 million or more in 2002. [2], [3]
Rwanda has the largest proportion of its population in prison where, as of 2002, over 100,000 people (out of a total populace of some 8 million) were held on suspicion of participation in the 1994 genocide. The USA is second largest in relative numbers with 714 people per 100,000 incarcerated.
The UK had 73,000 inmates in its facilities in 2003, with France and Germany having a similar number.
New Zealand has the 2nd highest prison population per capita in the developed world, of 169 prisoners per 100,000 population (second only to the United States).
Prisons by country
Prisons in Australia
Many prisons in Australia were built by convict labour in the 1800s. During the 1990s many prisons which were government run were privatised.
- List of Australian prisons and detention centres
- Immigration detention centres
- Mandatory detention in Australia
Prisons in Japan
Prisons in the United Kingdom
For information on prisons and related subjects in the United Kingdom, see articles on Her Majesty's Prison Service, on the United Kingdom prison population and the List of United Kingdom prisons. Also see house arrest.
Prisons in the United States
Prisons in history
The following are a selected list of prisons with well-known historical significance:
- Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Ossining, New York, U.S.
- The Bastille, Paris, France (historical) In french
- Château d'If, Marseille (historical) In french
- Lubyanka prison, Moscow (historical)
- Hanoi Hilton, Hanoi, Vietnam (POW prison; historical)
- Alcatraz, San Francisco (historical)
See also
- List of prisons
- Private prisons
- County jails
- Remand
- Penal colony
- Penology
- Prison abolition movement
- False imprisonment
- Prisons in the United States
- Life imprisonment
- Panopticon
- Penal labour
- Prison education
- Prison officer
- Penal reform
- Prison Sexuality (homosexuality and sexual abuse in prison)
- Borstal
- Anton Praetorius in 1613 was one of the first to describe the terrible situation of the prisoners and to protest against torture.
- Alcatraz Island
- House arrest
- Community service
- Prison conditions
Further reading
- Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison, New York: Random House 1975
- Peter Kropotkin, "In Russian and French Prisons". Online book. This is a criticism of the existence of prisons.
- James (Jim) Bruton, Big House: Life Inside a Supermax Security Prison, Voyageur Press (July, 2004), hardcover, 192 pages, ISBN 0896580393
- George Jackson: George Jackson: Soledad brother.
- Paula C. Johnson, Inner Lives: Voices of African American Women in Prison, New York University Press 2004
- Ted Conover. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing. Knopf, 2001. Trade paperback, 352 pages, ISBN 0375726624.
- Mark L. Taylor. The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2001. ISBN 0800632834.
- Wil S. Hylton. "Sick on the Inside: Correctional HMOs and the coming prison plague". Harper's Magazine, August 2003.
External links
- Rules for writing to prisoners
- More do's/don'ts for writing to prisoners
- Prisonmail: E-mail to mail service for families & friends of prisoners
- World Prison Population List (fourth edition)
- International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College, London
- The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica entry for "prison"
- Prison Literacy Programs
- Correctional Education and the Community College
- Prison Talk Online (discussion about prison related issues)
- Pictures and Stories from an Iowa Prison
- Innocent In Prison Project
- Meet-An-Inmate.Com, a personals service to seek inmates in the USA for penpals and relationships
- International PEN - Writers in Prison Committee
- Prisoner pen-pals
- www.foreignprisoners.com