county jail
Regional detention facility
A county jail is a local detention facility operated by county government, typically holding people awaiting trial or serving short sentences—usually under a year.
Distinguished from state or federal prisons, which house those convicted of more serious crimes serving longer terms.
He spent six months in county jail for the DUI.
Incarcerated individuals
- cellblockPrison housing unit
- detentionTemporary official holding
- custodyProtective care or control
- lockupTemporary detention facility
booking · holding cell · jumpsuit · commissary · visitation · contraband · overcrowding · release
Charge-reading court session
- bailCourt-set release payment
- bondBinding tie or connection
- pretrialBefore case adjudication
- public defenderAttorney representing those unable to afford one
prosecutor · charges · sentencing · plea bargain · probation · parole · hearing · court date
inmates
Incarcerated individuals
lockup · booking · holding cell · jumpsuit · commissary · visitation · contraband · overcrowding · release · time served
arraignment
Charge-reading court session
public defender · prosecutor · charges · sentencing · plea bargain · probation · parole · hearing · court date · docket
warden
Supervisory custodian of place
- guardsProtectors or watchmen
- correctional officersPrison security staff
- deputiesAppointed subordinate representatives
sheriff · bailiff · trustee · jailer · administrator · staff · shift · uniform · keys · patrol
- prisoncell block, inmate, prison, prisoner, prison cells
- Prison Memoirsprison memoirs, prison letters, doing time, behind bars, hard time
- prisonsprison, inmates, cells, prisons, prisoner
- sheriffssheriff, deputy, deputy sheriff, sheriff's office, star badge
- arrestarrest, handcuffs, Miranda warning, booking, custody
- county facilitiescourthouse, civic center, administration building, administrative building
county jailstate penitentiary
Government-run facility for serious offenders
maximum security prison · federal prison · state prison · supermax · death row
county jailfreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · free world · open society · home · release