state prisons
Regional correctional facilities
State prisons are correctional facilities operated by individual U.S. states to hold people convicted of felonies under state law.
They house inmates serving sentences typically longer than one year, distinguishing them from local jails (for short sentences and pretrial detention) and federal prisons (for federal crimes): The state prison system is chronically overcrowded.
- guard towersElevated defensive observation structures
- parole boardBody granting early freedom
- penitentiariesInstitutions housing convicted criminals
- wardenSupervisory custodian of place
- strip searchUnclothed physical examination
mess hall · cell blocks · parole eligibility · early release · overcrowding · yard time · correctional officers · guard · sentencing guidelines · cell · solitary confinement · security protocols · criminal statutes · oversight committee · three strikes law · substance abuse programs · bunks · commissary
- prison statisticsincarceration rates, federal prisons, female inmates, racial disparities, age distribution
- criminal justicearrest, jail, court, crime, guilty
- prisonsinmates, cells, prisons, prisoner, penitentiary
- penologypenology, prisons, incarceration, parole board, corrections officers
- California PrisonsSan Quentin, Alcatraz, correctional facilities, death row, cell block
- state governmentgovernor's office, legislature, lieutenant governor, attorney general, departments
state prisonsfederal prisons
National government detention facilities
state prisonsfreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · free society · civilian life · home · release