It differs based on the prison. Typically 'jails' are for short termers who have a decent chance of getting out relatively soon, so misconduct by the prisoners is far less. The ones you see on TV are the maximum security, long termer prisons, typically run by the state they are located in. These places are absolutely vile. Federal prisons are generally better than state prisons.

Prisons are highly regimented no matter the security level; they simply become more regimented as they go up the security scale. In a maximum security prison, the minimum 'recreation' time is 1 hour.

Basically, they're not places you want to visit. As a lawyer, I've been to Northern State Prison in Newark and county jails in Bergen, Morris and Passaic Counties.

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