Jails and Prisons

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Jails and Prisons The basic differences between jails and prisons are jails are used for sentences less than one year and prisons are used for sentences longer than one year. Jails are also used for detaining witnesses for a criminal court case, and usually in need of protection or to protect them from harm before testifying in a case. Prisons are more of a punishment type of facility than a jail, because more freedoms and privileges are taken away than in a jail, such as reading materials, phone calls and visitations are stricter. The concept of prison as a total institution is to reform or rehabilitate a person from their criminal behaviors so that upon release they do not re-offend. Some may argue the definition of rehabilitation as a whole, as being in prison long term changes people, or better said, they adapt to the prison lifestyle. This can have a negative, rather than a positive effect on the person. In modern prisons, there are often several programs to “fit the need” of each criminal from education, religion, therapy and counseling – both individual and group – as well as different ways to learn a trade or a craft so that upon release from prison the person can earn a living on their own. Jails play an important role in the criminal justice system as an intended impedance to criminal behavior. It is meant to serve as a punishment for a crime committed. Without jail, or the threat of it, people would break the law freely without worry of consequences. If society did not have jails violent criminals, sexual predators and general lawbreakers would still roam freely, presenting a continual danger to society. It is important to have consequences for people who break the law, and for society to know that jails are in operation, protecting them from

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