Types of prisons

Prisons are classified administratively as local or central prisons. Local prisons serve a variety of purposes — holding prisoners awaiting trial or sentencing and prisoners serving shorter sentences, up to about 18 months. There the worst overcrowding occurs. Prisoners serving longer sentences are detained in central prisons. Central prisons are large maximum-security prisons holding more than 1,000 offenders in conditions of strict security. For security, prisoners are classified into four categories, from A (prisoners likely to attempt escape, and constituting, if successful, a significant danger to the public) to D (prisoners who can be trusted to work in conditions of minimal security). Prisoners who are not considered a danger to the community may be confined in low-security or open prisons, where there is normally no obstacle to a prisoner's absconding. Women are normally held in separate institutions. Young people who have done something illegal are kept in detention centres because they are too young to go to prison. The purpose of these institutions is rather treatment or correction than punishment. Detention centres for young offenders serving sentences that must not exceed four months are based on the principle of strict discipline and physical activity; research has failed to show, however, that it is an effective deterrent to further crime.