The words “jail” and “prison” are used interchangeably to describe incarceration but they actually refer to distinct places.

Jail: A local detention facility (maintained by the city/town or county). It houses defendants who are ordered to be held in custody while their case is pending and defendants serving short incarceration sentences (less than one year).

Prison: A detention facility operated by the state’s Department of Corrections or the Federal Bureau of Prisons for offenders serving long-term sentences, usually on a felony conviction.

Incarceratory sentences are either determinate or indeterminate, meaning:

Determinate: A sentence of definite length of time (e.g., six months in county jail). The offender usually becomes eligible for release after a certain percentage of the determinate sentence has been served (e.g., eligible for release after 7/8th of sentence).

Indeterminate: A sentence of defined range (e.g., 20 years to life in prison; or two to seven years in prison). The offender may not be released until at least the minimum sentence has been served but may not be incarcerated past the maximum sentence. For example, defendants sentenced to two to seven years are not eligible for release until they have served two years. After two years they can be considered for parole but, if denied, cannot serve more than seven years.

When defendants are released from an indeterminate prison sentence before the maximum sentence has been served, they will serve the remainder of the sentence on parole. So in the above example, if the defendant was paroled after serving two years, the defendant would remain on parole until the end of the seven year sentence.