Federal Jail, Unlike Prison, Has Unsentenced Inmates

WASHINGTON —  “The ordinary person, even the ordinary politician, has a difficult time distinguishing a prison from a jail.”

It’s a difference Howard Safir has had to explain repeatedly for the last 12 years. As operations director of the U.S. Marshals Service, Safir was responsible for finding jail cells--not prison cells--for federal inmates.

Safir, who recently retired, got them from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons or leased them from state or local governments.

The U.S. Justice Department uses jails differently from the states, counties and cities.

Federal jail cells house only individuals who have been denied bail while they await trial or those convicted but awaiting sentencing.

State and local jails do that too. But they also hold individuals serving short misdemeanor sentences. The federal government sends such convicts to low-security prisons and prison camps.

Many states now also keep some more serious offenders in jails because their prisons are overcrowded.

Marshals, lawyers and judges agree that the most efficient jails are connected by a secure tunnel or bridge to the courthouse where the inmates are tried.

“A prison in a cornfield works fine. A jail doesn’t,” Safir said, “because jail inmates have to go to court each day. They need access to their lawyers. They are almost all still not-guilty prisoners under our system. They have more rights than convicts.”