Correctional Facilities and Their Offenders Numerous differences exist between jails and prisons. Jails primarily operate at the local level, which means they are generally run by individual counties. As such, there can be several jails within a state. Prions, however, are run either by particular states or by the federal government. There are far more state jails than there are county jails. The former has approximately 100 facilities, whereas the latter exceeds over 1,000 institutions across the country. However, state prisons are only in a certain state. For instance, all of the California state prisons are within California, all of the Maine state prisons are within Maine, and so forth.

One of the chief differences between county jails and state prisons pertains to the length of time in which an individual will stay there, as well as the severity of the crime. For the most part, county jail sentences are significantly shorter than those for prisons, whether federal or state. Very rarely will a county jail sentence exceed a couple of years. Sentences...

The severity of the crime is also a considerable factor in determining whether one will be sentenced to a county jail or full-fledged prison (Ayinc, 2009). In most cases, those who commit more austere crimes are sentenced to prisons. Jails are typically reserved for those with more minor infractions. However, it should be noted that those with felonies may serve their sentence in a county jail, depending on what sort of crime they committed.
Moreover, individuals may be held in a county jail temporarily until they are sentenced to either a federal or a state prison. This decision can oftentimes pertain to an individual's ability to post bail. In general, however, those who have committed serious crimes (such as murder, violent offenses, and gun charges) will be forced to do their time in larger prisons. Those who are convicted for lesser crimes and for relatively short amounts of time will more than likely serve time within a county jail.

There…