A prison or penitentiary or jail (in British English, sometimes spelt gaol) is a building or system used to hold persons convicted of crimes. Many private companies in the prison industry provide services to prisons. In the US they are organized in the American Correctional Association. Their lobbying arm is ALEC which advocates legislation favorable to the industry. The practice of undergoing punishment via a prison sentence, is colloquially expressed as: "doin' time".

List of Prisons

• Alcatraz, San Francisco Bay, California, USA.
• The Bastille, Paris
• Belmarsh Prison[?]
• Butyrka prison Moscow
• Dartmoor Prison
• Devil's Island, France
• Holloway Prison[?]
• Kingston Pentientiary[?], Canada
• Lancaster County Prison
• Lubyianka[?] Moscow
• Marshalsea[?]
• HM Prison Maze (also called Long Kesh)
• Newgate Prison
• Pentonville Prison[?], Isle of Wight
• La Santé Prison[?], Paris, France
• Sing Sing[?]
• Vacaville Prison
• Wormwood Scrubs
• Joliet Prison, Joliet, Illinois

List of Prison Corporations

• Premier
• Wackenhut

See also: United States prison population, United Kingdom prison population

Further Reading

• Mark L. Taylor, The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, Publishing House of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2001, ISBN 0800632834.