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Off the top of my head: Jail is local and generally short term. Prison is regional and longer sentences. Penitentiary...I think federal (national rather than state level) and higher security.

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Jail is also typically used for suspects awaiting trial.

In the US, jails are run by cities and counties and are usually for offenders with sentences of less than 5 years. Longer, more serious sentences are served in prisons, which are sometimes called penitentiaries (or more euphemistically, correctional facilities). These are operated by the state of federal government.

I keep the difference straight be remembering the phrases "county jail" and "federal prison", which makes it clear that going to prison is much more serious, and a much worse place to be.

Thanks, that cleared it up. Over here in Germany, there are only prisons, operated by the state, and labelled Justizvollzugsanstalt (JVA, ‘judicial execution facility’?), and facilities for underage/young offenders called Jugendarrestanstalten (JAA, ‘youth detention facility’, maybe).

The idea of prisons (or even proper police forces) operated by individual counties in the US still strikes me as odd, but then, those counties are likely more comparable to German states.

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