Jails and Prisons There are various types of prisons that are legally allowed to operate within the U.S.A. These prisons are categorized depending on the level of the crimes that the prisoners that it holds have committed. There are various categorizations of these prisons by various scholars but there are four that are most predominant as below (Vince De Maille, 2007);

Minimum and medium security prisons

These are the most common types of prisons in the U.S.A. And the prisoners here are held in dormitories kind of facilities and are allowed to have communal shower, sinks and even share toilets. The prisoners here are viewed to be posing little danger to the public and each other and are not violent as most of them are convicted of 'white collar crimes'

Close security

Here the prisoners are confined into cells which hold one or two people per cell. These cells are mostly operated from a remote location and they usually have their own toilets and sinks. Prisoners are however leave the cells to attend to the work assignments that they mat be given. They are also allowed to meet at common areas or in the exercise yard. The security of the prisons is usually high with three or more fences, one being electric fence. Majority of the prisoners in these prisons are deemed dangerous to the public and each other as they may turn violent.

Maximum security prisons

Here all the prisoners have their individual cells with sliding doors that are usually controlled from a remote location. These prisoners are confined in their cells for 23 hours a day. There are other areas where the prisoners are allowed to be out of their cells for most part of the day. However, during the times that they are allowed to be out of their cells, they remain within a cellblock from where the movements are restricted and can only be allowed on special occasions and with high security escort. The prisoners held here are those of violent crimes or organized gang members.

supermax prisons

These are the places where those taken to be most dangerous of all the criminals are held up. These're prisons like the ADX Florence where murderers, rapists, assailants, violators in lesser security prisons and prison gang members are held. They spend literally 23 hours of the day in their cells. They are allowed one hour out of the cell which they spend in a one-man shower or in a recreation space that is hardly twice the size of the cell and they are always alone. They are not allowed to access internet nor use phones. All their mails are opened unless they are legal communications that had been preannounced. They are not allowed to have physical contact with visitors. The cells have very small windows that do not allow them to know where they are and attempt to escape.
A total institution according to Ervin Goffman (2012) is a place of residence and work where a number of like individuals (with similar character orientation), cut off from the larger society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life. Examples include prisons, mental hospitals and many more.

In this regard every particular institution be it prison, monastery, mental institution captures something of the time and interest of its members and gives or rather provides something of a world to them that is to say every institution has an encompassing tendency. In this the encompassing is characterized or symbolized by a barrier to social intercourse with the outside world characterized by the physical plant, for instance locked doors, high walls and barbed wires and so forth.

There are various functions that are associated with the jails in the society today in a bid to help in the proper functioning of the criminal justice system. The main functions of the jails in the bid to fulfill the needs of the justice system are to hold the accused offenders who are deemed by the court as not eligible to…