Jails are distinct from prisons and function as the centers of confinement for people entering into the larger criminal justice system, exiting that system, or awaiting transfer to another institution. Jails hold people who are at many different points in processing through the system, and there is constant flux and turnover in the jail population. Jails are operated and administered at the city or county level, while prisons are state-level institutions. Since jails are run by local jurisdictions, they are subject to local political and budgetary pressures. Jail conditions are often substandard and made worse by overcrowded facilities.

The jail incarceration rate and the number of people in jail have increased greatly during the last few decades. The portion of women in jails is increasing, and there is a disproportionate number of people of color held in jails and prisons. Almost half of those in jail have not yet been tried or convicted. The poorest among them cannot afford bail and must await trial behind bars. Prisoners, tried or not, exhibit and magnify the city’s social ills. Treatment programs to prepare jail inmates for release constitute a politically volatile issue and are difficult to accomplish in the jail environment. There are some alternatives to jail, including specialized courts and electronic monitoring. More research needs to be done to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of these intermediate sanctions.

• To understand the functions of jails and their role in the larger criminal justice system.
• To gain a sense of who is in jail, for what reasons, and how long they stay there.
• To learn the basic procedures applied to those who are arrested and taken to jail.
• To understand the connections among mental illness, women, people of color, and jail.
• To be introduced to basic facts about jails—such as their location, size, and design—and how jails are administered.
• To learn about some of the alternatives to jail.
• To grasp the challenging realities of everyday life in jail for inmates and staff alike.