What is the difference between prison and jail?

Answer 1

Jail is usually run by a county or town. Offenders are sent to jail for sentences less than a year. For a year or more, the offenders are sent to prison, which is normally run by the state or federal government.

Jail is where you go when you're arrested and haven't gone to court. Prison is where you go for a sentence if you already wen't to court and the judge said you were guilty.

Answer 2

A jail is a county run facility where you are taken after your arrest until your trial (unless you bail out). Someone sentenced to less than one year is usually housed in a jail. Prison is a state or federally run institution. The prisoners have been through trial and have been convicted--of a felony. Sentences are over 1 year. You often hear (especially in California) of prison sentences for less than one year, but those are simply a parolee who has somehow violated the conditions of his parole, and thus returned to prison. for a relatively short time.

Answer 3

jail is normally the smaller of the two generally being that jail is a county place. prison is the federal spot such as the triple max prisons that hold our worst criminals.

Added: Although the the general public often uses the term to mean the same thing, they ARE different.

Jails customarily house those people awaiting court actions AND those convicted of misdemeanor offenses and sentenced to incarceration of one year of less. They are usually operated by county level government, most often by the County Sheriff's Department.

Prisons, on the other hand, are usually operated by the state and federal governments and are institutions where those convicted of felonies, and serving more than one year incarceration are housed..