Four Methods of Custodial Correction
- Jails often hold people who have been remanded into custody and are waiting for their cases to be heard. They may also hold people who have been convicted of misdemeanors, those who have only short sentences to serve and those who are awaiting placement at a prison facility. State prisons hold people convicted of felonies within that state.
- According to the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States, as of January 1, 2010, there were 1,404,053 persons under the jurisdiction of state prison authorities in the U.S. This marked the first decline in state prison inmates in 40 years. However, the total prison population in the U.S. increased by 2,061 people because of an increase in the number of those incarcerated in Federal Bureau of Prisons establishments. Prisons operated by this bureau hold those who have been convicted of federal crimes, which often relate to financial and fraudulent activities.
- Juvenile detention centers and youth correctional facilities hold young offenders who are not old enough to have been tried and convicted as adults. They are not intended to be punitive, but instead hope to facilitate the rehabilitation, skills and behavioral changes necessary to enable young people to re-enter society successfully.
- Modeled on military recruitment training courses, boot camps are a means of providing young people with short, sharp shocks which will hopefully, lead to positive behavioral changes. Generally it is the parents of the youth, and not the judicial system, that places them in boot camps with the hope that it will prevent their child from future incarceration in a government facility. However, judges may order boot camp detention for some first-time offenders.