In a message dated 7/17/2006 11:57:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

jail is  for pre-trial confinements (for those who cannot
make bail) and for  sentences of less than one year, which are served
locally, while those  convicted and sentenced to terms longer than one
year are sent upstate to  penitentiary



A "jail" is a single building where the freedom of the inmates is
constrained by the building walls. A penitentiary on the other hand, is a  facility with
many separate buildings, all surrounded by an impenetrate  (hopefully) fence
or wall that constrains the freedom of the inmates. Jails  and "pens" are
fundamentally different kinds of  facilities.

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