Peggy Ritchie and I are both veterans of the National Institute of Corrections in Colorado—Peggy was at both NIC’s Academy and the NIC Information Center. We collaborated on national assessments and surveys to identify trends in state corrections and elicit practitioners’ knowledge, with the aim of developing and improving NIC training programs. Peggy’s areas of […]
Jail Standards, Classification, and Safety
Last week I sat in on a meeting of jail inspection agency leaders from around the United States. These people work in state government, and their mission is to ensure safety and security in the jails they work with. They or their staff members visit each local facility statewide to check whether these jails meet […]
What’s the difference between prison and jail?
You know how you’re watching the news, and the reporter solemnly says a criminal will be spending his or her life in jail, or will serve a 20-year jail sentence, or is languishing in prison waiting for trial? It’s not going to happen. Let me clear this up. In the United States, we often encounter […]