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.

New York State Prison

The New York State Prison System is administered and controlled by the New York State Department of Correction Services. the NYSDOCS is in charge of a total of 71 correctional facilities, which currently hold nearly 63,000 inmates and prisoners.

A total of 31,300 make up the staff of the NYSDOCS, with about 23,000 being correction officers. The headquarters for NYSDOCS is located in Albany, New York, and is currently in charge of the fourth largest prison system in the United States.

Two of the most well-known state prisons in New York are Rikers Island and Attica Prison. Rikers Island is the main jail compound in the city of New York. Rikers Island is located on the East River, between the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx. Rikers Island opened its doors in 1932 and the facility is considered to be a temporary housing complex, which consists of a total of ten jails.

Offenders are held here while awaiting trial, cannot post bail, are waiting to be transferred to another state facility, or are serving a year or less of incarceration. The average inmate population is about 14,000, though it can be as high as 20,000 on any given day, including staff.

Attica Prison is located in the town of Attica, New York, and opened its doors in the 1930s. It is currently considered to be a maximum security penitentiary with an all-male population. It has been known to house some of the most notorious criminals in the history of New York State, including David Berkowitz, the serial killer that was dubbed as the Son of Sam. If you need legal advice and assistance, contact New York lawyers.

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.

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.

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

Finally Caught: Illegal Alien Wanted for Rape

On October 11, 2012, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) announced that it successfully tracked and apprehended the illegal alien after finding him in southwest Detroit.

The man’s name is Miguel Angel Davila- Ruiz. He was wanted by the ICE on four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. The crime was reported in Pontiac, Michigan, and ERO and the Sheriff’s Office issued an arrest warrant in July of 2012. They offered a $2,000 reward for information about Davila-Ruiz, and the media immediately became involved.

After receiving information from numerous sources, officers under the ERO Fugitive Operations located Davila-Ruiz on October 10. He was hiding in a residence on the 1200 block of Central Street located in southwest Detroit.

As the officers were making an entry into the house, Davila-Ruiz and another man exited from the rear of the house on foot. The chase didn’t last long. The two men were apprehended in the backyard of the home.

Davila-Ruiz was moved to the Sheriff’s Office on the night of October 10. After the investigation is completed, he will face sentencing. He will then return to ICE custody where he will begin to be processed for deportation.

The other male was also arrested on administrative immigration violations. He will remain in ICE custody until he is deported.

Rebecca Adducci, the field office director for ERO Detroit, stated: “The arrest of this alleged violent alien is at the absolute core of what we do. ICE is using its unique immigration enforcement authorities to safeguard our communities from criminal aliens and others who pose a public safety threat, including suspects attempting to evade law enforcement. I’m very fortunate to lead a team of officers who day in and day out exhibit unmatched skill and professionalism in the pursuit of criminal aliens.”

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Summit County Jail

The Summit County jail is located on 6300 North Silver Creek Drive in Park City, Utah. Being one of the state’s largest tourist attractions, primarily for snowboarding and skiing accommodations, the Summit County jail is viewed as one of the most important correctional facilities in the state.

The primary mission of the Summit County jail is to provide public safety for the county’s residents and tourists. The secondary mission of the Utah county jail is to provide educational tools to its offenders to facilitate the integration back into the community. The facility is a minimal-security prison that incorporates numerous educational and treatment programs to not only aid an inmate’s assimilation back into the community, but to also teach the wrongdoers on how to avoid repeated stints in jail.

The Summit County jail is divided into seven distinct pods: the Bravo Pod, the Delta Pod, the Echo and Fox Pods, the Golf Pod, and the Alpha and Charlie Pods. The Summit County jail is one of the smaller correctional facilities in the state; it currently houses 40 inmates.

Most of the incarcerations stem from minor felonies, and the average jail time is typically no more than one year. If an inmate is found guilty of an additional sentence and requires a longer stay he will be transferred to a more secure or larger correctional facility.

The visiting hours and rules for the Summit County jail are listed below:

· All visiting hours are between 8:30-11:00 AM and 12:30-4:00 PM. Each pod has its own corresponding visiting day: Monday-Bravo Pod, Tuesday-Delta, Wednesday-Echo and Fox, Thursday-Golf, and Friday- Alpha and Charlie.

· Visits may last between 15 and 30 minutes, and nobody under the age of 18 is allowed to visit unless they are the child of the prisoner.

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

Franklin County Jail

Located at 1016 North 4th Avenue in Pasco, Washington
the Franklin County jail is a medium security correctional facility, that
through various educational and treatment programs, aims to rehabilitate it’s
300 inmates. The Franklin County jail is comprised of 6 separates housing units
that contain various security levels. Although the majority of inmates within
the Franklin County jail are graded as “non-threatening” they are
still under constant surveillance from the nearly 75 correctional officers
under staff.

That being said, inmates at the Franklin County jail are given far
more freedoms when compared to inmates in a maximum or federal prison. Inmates
typically bunk with “compatible” individuals–compatible in this
sense means that the individuals share similar histories and both pose
non-combative or conflicting characteristics. The Franklin County Jail works in
conjunction with the Franklin County Sheriff’s office, which is located in the
same facility, and is open from 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Monday through Friday.

Every 24 hours, the Franklin County Sheriff’s office releases a list of all
current inmates that are confined on the premises, in addition to a full list
of all those individuals who were booked and released within a 72 hour period.
The directors also lists the charges, the age of the individual, his/her race,
and their date of birth.

In addition to this basic information, the arresting
officer is also listed, and the location within the Franklin County Jail is
documented. This detailed directory allows individuals related to the convicted
person to pinpoint his location for corresponding visiting hours, and to take
note of any transfers or cell changes.

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