INCARCERATION
Confinement in a jail or prison; imprisonment.
Police officers and other law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. This confinement, whether before or after a criminal conviction, is called incarceration. Juveniles and adults alike are subject to incarceration.
A jail is a facility designed to confine persons after arrest and before trial, or for a short period
upon conviction for a lesser offense. A prison is
built to house persons for longer periods of time
following conviction for a more serious offense.
Jails also may be called detention centers, and
prisons may be called correctional facilities or
penitentiaries. Regardless of their name, their
function is generally the same: to lock up
accused and convicted criminals.
The pretrial detention of accused criminals
is an ancient practice. From the fifth century to
the tenth century, persons accused of crimes in
England were confined in jail through the end of
trial unless they had property to pledge. If they
pledged property, the court held it in order to
ensure their appearance at trial, and they were
released from jail. After the conquest of England
by William the Conqueror in 1066, local sheriffs
determined who deserved pretrial release. This
practice continued until the thirteenth century,
when widespread favoritism and abuse by the
sheriffs led to the enactment of uniform proce-
dures concerning pretrial release.
The custom of jailing criminal defendants
was continued in the American colonies. The
payment of bail as a condition of pretrial release
was also adopted. In 1791, the EIGHTH AMEND-
MENT to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, stat-
ing in part that “[e]xcessive bail shall not be
required . . . nor CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISH-
MENTS inflicted.” This language constituted the
only provision in the Constitution directly
addressing jails and incarceration.
There were no prisons in the United States
before the Constitution was written in 1789.
Convicted criminals were sentenced to forms of
punishment more colorful than incarceration.
Punishment for serious crimes included BAN-
ISHMENT from the community; public pillory,
which was detention in a wood device that held
the head and hands by closing around the neck
and wrists; and CORPORAL PUNISHMENT, which
was designed to disfigure the offender using
measures such as whipping, branding, or slicing
off the body part thought to be responsible for
the crime. The most serious crimes were pun-
ishable by death.
The first prison in the United States was
built in Philadelphia in 1790, when the WALNUT
STREET JAIL added a new cell house to its exist-
ing jail and devoted the new cells to the confine-
ment of convicted criminals. Established by the
nonviolent Quakers as an alternative to CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT, prison was originally intended to
be a progressive setting for hard work, reflection,
