Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime (custodial sentence).

People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of justice. Incarceration serves four essential purposes with regard to criminals:

• to isolate criminals to prevent them from committing more crimes
• to punish criminals for committing crimes
• to deter others from committing crimes
• to rehabilitate criminals

Incarceration rates, when measured by the United Nations, are considered distinct and separate from the imprisonment of political prisoners and others not charged with a specific crime. Historically, the frequency of imprisonment, its duration, and severity have varied considerably. There has also been much debate about the motives for incarceration, its effectiveness and fairness, as well as debate regarding the related questions about the nature and etiology of criminal behavior.

Noun

jail (countable and uncountable; plural jails)

1. A place for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody or detention, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding.
2. (uncountable) Confinement in a jail.
   • 2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, Guardian:

     He said Robins had not been in trouble with the law before and had no previous convictions. Jail would have an adverse effect on her and her three children as she was the main carer.

3. (slang) school

   I have to go to jail 5 days a week.

4. (horse racing) The condition created by the requirement that a horse claimed in a claiming race not be run at another track for some period of time (usually 30 days).

• (prison): Like many nouns denoting places where people spend time, jail requires no article after certain prepositions: hence in jail (“detained in a jail”), go to jail (“become detained in a jail”), and so on. The forms in a jail, go to a jail, and so on do exist, but tend to imply mere presence in the jail, rather than detention there.

Until Monopoly popularized the spelling jail in the UK and Australia, gaol was the standard spelling in these countries.

• Associations (2)
• State Agencies (26)

• Science: Social Sciences: Criminology: Organizations (6)
• Society: Crime: Prisons (59)
• Society: Crime: Research: Corrections (6)

• LCA Private Criminal Justice and Social Services
  lcaservices.com
  Private criminal justice and social service agency providing electronic monitoring, home detention, drug and alcohol testing, global positioning, and other sentencing options.
• The Warden's Homepage
  members.tripod.com
  Personal homepage of a South Carolina prison warden.
• South Yorkshire Probation Service
  syps.org.uk
  Overview of the work of probation in South Yorkshire in supervising offenders effectively, protecting the public, and ensuring community safety.