This morning’s Orlando Sent!nel lead story:
I’ve always heard prison and jail used interchageably, particularly by the media. I’ve checked my dictionaries, and they all give the definition of “a place of incarceration”.
Is it a municipal vs. county vs. state. vs. federal thing?
Can a prisoner in an overcrowded prison be sent to a less-crowded jail to ease the overcrowding, or is that just not done?
You’re presumably behind bars in either one, so the practical distinction might not be very great. But here in Texas, at least, the difference is basically hierarchical. When you’re first arrested or awaiting trial, you go to the county jail. If you’ve been convicted, you go to state prison to serve your term (if it’s long enough). I think the distinction is similar in other states.
Jails are operated by county or below and generally hold people before or after trial, and misdemeanor sentences of less than a year.
Prisons are operated at state or federal level for people that have been sentenced to 1 year or more, and are usually for felony offenses.
What about a penitentiary?
penetentiary is generally used as a synonym for “prison” IME. Turbo has the distinction down - though some jurisdictions allow for up to 2 years setence at a jail, and one can be convicted of a felony and sentenced to a jail term vs. a prison term (the wording was such that it seemed if you were in a jail you couldn’t have been convicted of a felony, I could have read it wrong).
(many states are using the term ‘correctional facility’ as a term for what we routinely think of as prisons. We even have some in Michigan with the term “Camp” in their title. )
What I’d like to know is why the Brits spell it gaol and gaoler. I know they are kind of strange but this cannot possibly make sense even to them.
What wring said.
All jurisdictions can set their own rules as far as length of term in jail vs. the pen. And I should have mentioned that the differences are “In General”. Jail is generally where the misdemeanors go, simply because by nature of sentencing, they are usually less than a year. Felons can be placed in county lockup, but it’s usually if they have very light sentences that are near the cutoff of the jurisdiction they are in, as well as what the offense was.
As far as the Brits, they do everything goofy. 
Historically, jails were places where people were held awaiting trial. Originally there was a very limited concept of punishment by imprisonment- other means were used. Imprisonment as a punishment required prisons for such a purpose, and the distinction between prison and jail was maintained- it shows in the use of the two terms in modern US (in Britain, Jail and Prison are currently used interchangably, although there still exist Town Gaols, most of which are Art Centers or Wine Bars). Penitentiaries were a nineteenth century invention; whereas prison had been meant to be socially and morally painful (and often physically so as well), the penitentiary was designed to allow individual reflection on sins committed and on rehabilitation.
And BTW, Gaol is IIRC the older spelling (from Anglo Saxon) and Jail is a modern respelling. As far as Turbo Dogs comments, Brits only do things ‘Goofy’ because the US believes that their way is the only way. People with more insight into how societies work realize that there are many different ways of doing things, most of them as defensible as others. The most interesting thing to me about difference between the US and Britain is where the US has retained the historic way of doing things from the seventeenth century and before, and Britain has moved on; Capital Punishment for instance.
So, Pjen, does mean “please take this statement seriously” in Britain?
Okay, I appreciate the facts and information from everyone so far. I have found this most enlightening, and I appreciate the insight into how this is viewed other places.
Let us not turn this into a “we”/“they” inflammatory debate, thank you. This is GQ, not GD: a simple answer is all I request.