Places of imprisonment in the United States include `lock-ups,' jails, and prisons proper. in each town or city are local lock-ups,"calabooses,' or 'police stations' for the detention of arrested persons pending immediate trial before the magistrates. Persons convicted of misdemeanors are confined in the county jails or houses of correction. Presumptive felons, bound over to the grand jury, are kept in the county jails pending trial, and then, if sentenced, are confined in the State penitentiaries. United States pris oners are usually kept in State institutions, as the general Government maintains only a few prisons. As a rule, county jails are breeding places of crime. The houses of correction are better managed. Few county jails provide work for prisoners. In sonic of the States the prison system is not yet well worked out. These in stitutions are for adults. There are also re formatories (q.v.) for younger delinquents. There is a general feeling that local jails should be given up, and that all prisoners should be under State control, as in England, where the general Government assumed control of all prisons in 1878.
The question of prison reform has received much attention in America as well as in Europe. The National l'rison Congress, the National Con ference of Charities and Correction, as well as local organizations, have had great influence in the past in bringing about improvements. The meetings of the International Prison Congress (q.v.) have been of great value. Consult: International Prison Congress, Prisons and Re formatories at llome awl Abroad (London, 1S72) ; Wines, State of Prisons in the Il'orbl (Cambridge, 1880), a very use ful compendium of facts; id., Punishment and Reformation (New' York, 1895), an his torical sketch of the rise of the penitentiary system; Barrows, Prison Systems of the United States (Washington, 1900) ; and id., The Nefor Mnaarca System iot the United States (ib., 1900). See CRIM INOLOGY ; CONVICT LABOR; JUVENILE OFFENDERS; PENOLOGY; PUNISHMENT; REFORM ATORIES.