Juvenile Detention Centers in Dixie, Washington

A prison, also known as a jail or gaol (dated, British, Australian, and to a lesser extent Canadian English), penitentiary (American English), detention center (or centre if outside the US), correction center (American English), correctional facility, lock-up or remand center, is a facility in which inmates (or prisoners) are forcibly confined and denied a variety of freedoms under the authority of the state as punishment for various crimes. Prisons are most commonly used within a criminal justice system: people charged with crimes may be imprisoned until their trial; those pleading or being found guilty of crimes at trial may be sentenced to a specified period of imprisonment. In simplest terms, a prison can also be described as a building in which people are legally held as a punishment for a crime they have committed. Prisons can also be used as a tool of political repression by authoritarian regimes. Their perceived opponents may be imprisoned for political crimes, often without trial or other legal due process; this use is illegal under most forms of international law governing fair administration of justice.