LA County Jail

The Los Angeles County jail system has faced allegations that it is in fact not a correctional facility, but is instead the largest mental health hospital in the country. As a result of these complaints, and in order to more completely address the special needs of individuals with mental illnesses who come into contact with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which manages the LA County Jail, has worked in collaboration with the Department of Mental Health, which established an on-site Jail Mental Health Services.

Established in 1972, the Jail Mental Health Services allows individuals at the LA County Jail to provide mental health services to individuals who need mental health assistance. Of the twenty thousand inmates who are housed in the LA county jail system on a daily basis, approximately two thousand individuals are or have been diagnosed with mental illnesses. Ninety percent of these individuals in the LA County Jail System with mental problems are also in trouble due to substance abuse problems as well.

The main hub for mental health services in the LA County jail system for men who need mental health assistance is provided at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles, with mental health services provided for women are provided at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, fifteen miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

Every individual who enters into a LA county jail first receives a mental health screening.

California County Jail

LA County Jail

LA County Jail is located in downtown Los Angeles. One of the largest challenges facing LA County Jail is that there is larger shares of individuals who come into LA County Jail have mental disorders. As a result, every inmate who enters the LA County Jail system receives a mental health screening.

Fresno County Jail

Fresno County Jail is overseen by the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. One of the highlights of the Fresno County Jail system is that it focuses on the rehabilitation of the inmates in its care. Fresno County Jail has a main building and an annex.

Sacramento County Jail

Sacramento County Jail is located in downtown Sacramento. SAC County Jail has housed several famous inmates, most notable the Unabomber. In light of budgetary shortfalls, the Sacramento County Jail has sought to find opportunities to save money, such as paroling inmates or consolidating into a single building.

Madera County Jail

Madera County Jail is run by the Madera County Department of Corrections. The Madera County Jail is located in Central California. Madera County Department of Corrections is devoted to ensuring the safety of the inmates, corrections officers, and community at large by operating the jail in according to California law.

Solano County Jail

Solano County Jail is one of the nine County Jails in the Bay-Delta area, and of the fifty eight across the state. The Solano County Jail operates in accord with the standards established by Corrections Standards Authority, a state organization.

Tehema County Jail

Tehema County Jail can house 227 inmates at a time. Inmates held in Tehema County Jail, as is the case with any California County Jail may be serving a sentence handed down by the local court, awaiting trial, or being transported from one jail to another, whether between state facilities or County Jails.

Placer County Jail

Placer County Jail includes a maximum security module, two modules to house male inmates, and another for female inmates. Placer County Jail can hold three hundred fifty two inmates. The modern facility has been expanded multiple times since its origins in World War II army warehouses.

Marin County Jail

Marin County Jail is governed by the Marin County Sheriff's Office Detention Services Bureau. Marin County Jail works with the Marin County Probation Office to oversee the sentences of more than two hundred individuals who have been sentenced by the Marin County Court.

Kern County Jail

The Kern County Sheriff's Office is responsible for the governing of Kern County Jail. More than one quarter of the staff of the Kern County Sheriff's Office works as deputies in the Kern County Jail. Individuals in the Kern County Jail may be serving a sentence, awaiting trial, or being transported between jails.

Volusia County Jail

Volusia County Jail is a detention facility located in Daytona Beach, Florida, at 1300 Red John Drive. The Volusia County Division of Corrections has administrative oversight over Volusia County Jail. In addition to the Volusia County Jail, which is also referred to as the Branch Jail, the Division of Corrections also administers and sends inmates to the Volusia County Correctional Facility.

The Volusia County Jail includes a courtroom specifically set aside for First Appearance functions, which are held within 24 hours of that individual first being arrested. People can secure a bond for inmates being kept in Volusia County Jail by referring to the local bail bonds services. In general, the financial burden imposed by bail bonds are set in accordance with the severity of the charge leveled at the inmate.

After being held in the Volusia County Jail for two weeks, inmates will have received physical examinations to determine if they have any health problems. Family or friends of Volusia County Jail inmates are encouraged to contact the County Sheriff’s Office if they believe that person to be at risk from health problems, other people within the jail, or a suicidal state of mind.

Visitors to Volusia County Jail must be accompanied by adults and in possession of legally acceptable IDs if they are under the age of 18. All visitors to Volusia County Jail inmates must wear appropriate attire. In the first 72 hours of being kept in Volusia County Jail, inmates are only allowed to meet with members of their immediate family.

Clark County Jail

Clark County Jail is located on 707 West 13th Street in Vancouver, Washington. The Clark County jail currently has a population of 714 inmates. The correctional facility is a low to medium security jail. As a result of its security level, the majority of inmates are convicted of non-violent crimes, or petty crimes that do not pose considerable threats to society.

As a result, the average length of stay is just under 15 months for the individuals incarcerated in Clark County jail. The Clark County jail has a medical unit which is considered one of the best in the state. The medical services center provides aid to individuals confined in the main jail, the jail work center, and those in custody in the Juvenile Detention facilities.

Although the facility experiences minimal problems in terms of violence, and attempted escapes, the Clark County jail experienced a severe budget deficit in late 2009. The financial problems resulted in two rounds of departmental budget cuts resulting in the closure of the “H” cell block. The prison lost 36 staff positions, and over 200 prison beds. As a result, the prison is susceptible to overcrowding and constantly transports inmates in and out of the facility.

The Clark County Jail has a total of 6 pods or cell blocks. The D, E, and F cell blocks are located near the Medical Unit and possess visiting hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. These are the pods located in the main jail; the other pods are stacked or organized within the Jail Work Center and the work release portion of the prison.

Snohomish County Jail

The Snohomish County jail aims to serve the community and the criminal justice system by providing the area with safe, humane, secure, and cost effective detention in accordance with the state’s constitutional guidelines. The Snohomish county jail and the Snohomish Sheriff’s office is located at 3000 Rockefeller Avenue in Everett, Washington. In addition to housing inmates, the Snohomish County jail aims to rehabilitate their trouble and facilitate their reentry into the community.

The correctional facility does this by offering numerous programs, both for the incarcerated individual, ad his/her family. The correctional officers and employees of the jail also offers incarcerated individuals medical services, commissary accounts, and educational programs that provide classes designed to further an incarcerated individuals knowledge in religion, treatment methods, and other educational topics.

The Snohomish County Jail has a classification unit, in regards to confining areas, which are designed to specifically classify inmates and separate those individuals who present a risk to other inmates. The majority of inmates at the Snohomish County jail are respectful and well behaved, thus creating a greater need to separate those individuals who are not fit for society from the general prison population.

The classification is determined by assessing the offense that the inmate committed, his history, his overall behavior, and the history of escape attempts. All of these factors are used to determine the appropriate housing of inmates, particularly, what inmates are compatible to be housed together. All pertinent information concerning an inmate’s rights, visitation hours, an inmate roster, and anything else pertaining to the correctional facility can be found at the website of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s office.

How Do State Prisons Function in the US?

The United States’ prison system is divided into certain categories. In general, American prisons are either run by the federal government (federal penitentiaries) or local bodies (state prisons). A federal prison is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which is a branch of the United States Department of Justice. State prisons, in contrast, are typically governed by the particular state’s Department of Corrections. Although run by different governments, the two systems are uniform with regards to implementation and the over-arching goal of rehabilitation. The primary differences between the two prisons is that a state prison is typically smaller in size and will usually be overcrowded. However, the conditions of state penitentiary will vary from jurisdiction.

State prisons are considered to be facilities for the confinement and punishment of inmates and convicted criminals. However, most states tend to have a system in place rooted more in the rehabilitation of the criminal population. Many state prisons are actually designed with this particular concept in mind, allowing for inmates to take high school and college classes to obtain diplomas and degrees and instituting different kinds of programs for rehabilitation purposes, such as Prison Fellowship.

A prisoner of the state can sometimes also be held in smaller facilities, which are usually referred to as jails. Jails are found in ever town or city in the country and are used to hold a prisoner of state that is serving less than one year for a crime. Often times, these prisons are managed by the town and/or county in which they are located. A prisoner of the state will usually be held at a country or town jail while awaiting trial and before being sent off to a state penitentiary.

King County Jail

The King County jail is located at 500 5th Avenue, in downtown Seattle, Washington. The facility became fully operational in 1986 and currently employees nearly 375 correctional staff members. In addition to confining thousands of inmates the King County jail offers numerous programs to facilitate an individual’s re-entry into the community, and educational classes to help those same individuals avoid making the same mistakes that led to a prison sentence.

The King County jail has a fully operational website which offers a family member or friend of an incarcerated individual pertinent information regarding location, visiting hours, bail options, and a description of all the aforementioned programs. In addition, the website also offers a King County jail register which lists a full King County jail roster.

The King County jail roster lists all inmates that currently reside in the correctional facility. Furthermore, the King County jail roster, in addition to the incarcerated individuals’ name, offers a friend or family member the location within the facility, the date of incarceration, and the expected release of the inmate. By viewing the King County jail register an individual can look up the corresponding visiting hours and rule of their incarcerated loved one.

Within the King County jail exists numerous courts, and the King County Sheriff’s office. The office of the King County Prosecuting attorney is also found inside the correctional facility. The various programs that the King County Jail offers are listed below:

· Volunteers & Community-Based Service Groups

· Educational & Literacy Services

· Creative Writing Skills Class

· Health Education Programs-Hepatitis C and Healthy Sexuality

· Psychiatric Services

· Pregnant Women & Prenatal Care

·; Yoga Classes

· Stress Management & Personal Empowerment

Whatcom County Jail

The Whatcom County jail is located at 2030 Division St in Bellingham Washington. Bail is allowed to be posted 24 hours a day via the Jail lobby desk which is open from 9 to 12 AM, and then from 1 AM to 4:30 PM. The Whatcom County jail is a minimum to medium security facility that aims at teaching its inmates valuable lessons about life and avoiding choices that impede individual progress.

The Whatcom County Jail website has a full roster of inmates that allows family members, friends, and victims of the convicted to track and locate the incarcerated individual. The roster on the Whatcom County jail website does not list the names of all the inmates and their location within the facility as other jails do, but instead, it offers a directory that requires the user to type in the name of the incarcerated individual.

The visiting rules and hours of the Whatcom County jail are fairly generic for most minimum security prisons. Each inmate is allowed one, one-hour visit per week; adult visitors must present a current picture ID to visit the incarcerated individual. All people who enter the jail are subject to search, and visiting is not permitted between individuals when he or she is placed on a no-contact list. Visiting hours work in correspondence to the inmate’s housing assignment; the location of a particular inmate can be found using the jail roster. Due to budgetary cuts, the visiting hours of Whatcom County Jail have been altered to the following:

Saturday: 8:00-11:00 A.M.: 1st and 3rd floor–woman’s floors

1:00-4:00 P.M.: Second Floor unites 2A, 2B, and 2C

Sunday: 8:00-11:00 A.M: Third Floor and 1st Floor, All women

1:00-4:00 P.M.: Second Floor 2D, 2E and 2F

Pierce County Jail

The Pierce County jail is located at 910 Tacoma Ave (on the south side) Tacoma, Washington. The Pierce County jail is a medium/maximum facility that consists of two separate facilities: the New Jail and the Main Jail. In total, the Pierce County Jail confines over 1,300 inmates.

The Pierce County correctional facility, because of it’s size, is a highly organized prison that groups inmates based on the individuals crime, his/her history, and their overall behavior. Although the jail is classified as a medium/maximum correctional facility it groups individuals based on eight different categories: Level 1 is the highest security in the Pierce County jail, level 2 is close custody, level 3 is high/medium security, level 4 contains medium security measures, level 5 medium pre-sentence, and levels 6-8 are where the well-behaved or non-violent inmates are kept.

Each inmate in the Pierce County Jail has the opportunity to move out of a certain level through review of their classification assignment. These reviews will evaluate the individuals’ history as well as his/her propensity to start trouble. The initial classification of an inmate occurs within the first six hours of booking.

The Pierce County jail website is incredibly expansive, in regards to pertinent information concerning the facility’s daily operation. The website also contains a Pierce County jail roster which can aid a loved one in finding the exact location within the jail of an incarcerated individual.

The Pierce County jail roster enables a person to know who is in the facility and the length of their respective sentence. The Pierce County jail roster is not only a help to the loved of one’s of incarcerated individuals, but also to the victims and others involved in the criminal act. The Pierce County jail roster is especially valuable for victims of domestic violence.

Thurston County Jail

The Thurston County jail is located at 2000 Lakeridge Drive in Southwest Olympia, Washington. Visiting hours for incarcerated individuals within the Thurston County jail are only permissible on the weekends. The schedule is broken down based on the spelling of the inmate’s last name–Letters A-K is allowed to be visited Saturday mornings from 8:30 to 11:30 and Sunday afternoon, from 2:30-4:30.

The schedule is flipped for those individuals whose last name starts with L-Z. Only two people are allowed to visit an inmate each visiting day–this rule does not apply to family members, for two related adults and the inmate’s children are allowed to visit the inmate.

The online roster of those in-custody contains either a directory, where a person can search for an inmate or a full listing of all those incarcerated. The full listing is frequently updated, and lists all of those individuals currently confined in the Thurston County jail.

When you click on an inmate’s name you will see the inmate’s listed bail, his/her charge, the court where it is being reviewed, and the cause number. This thorough directory enables a loved one, or victim to view the inmate’s current situation within the Thurston County jail.

The Thurston County jail confines both men and women charged of various criminal acts. As a result of the facility’s diversity, the jail has adopted numerous programs to aid in rehabilitation efforts of those in need. The following is a list of all the programs within the Thurston County jail.

· Adult Basic Education Programs

· Alcoholic/Narcotics Anonymous

· Anger Management

· Chemical Dependency Program

· HIV/AIDS Education Class

· Inmate Law Library

· Inmate Worker Program

· Jail Ministries

Inmate Search

Fresno County Jail

Duval County Jail