Sentence examples for many jails are from inspiring English sources

Many jails are now over capacity.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, who is used to witnessing grim conditions, has described the situation as the worst for a decade, warning that too many jails are "places of violence, squalor and idleness".

Prisoners on basic level can be visited for only two hours a month and in many jails are not allowed "family visits", which tend to be orientated towards children.

Staffing levels in many jails are too low to keep order and maintain standards, he reports, with drugs, debt, bullying and self-segregation by prisoners looking to avoid violence commonplace.

Not only are prisoners frequently subjected to brutal treatment in conditions of mass overcrowding and extraordinary squalor, but many jails are also themselves run by criminal gangs.One result has been a recent rash of prison massacres and fires, some set deliberately.

But judging from inspection reports, anecdote and statistics, many jails are far from safe.

MPs said many jails were built to house fit young offenders and are unsuitable for middle-aged and elderly inmates.

Many jails today are being asked to do the job of mental health institutions, even though they lack the resources and expertise to treat people suffering from mental illness or substance abuse.

Our correspondent says that, across the country, many poorly resourced jails are in effect run by powerful crime gangs.

Though approximately 731,000 inmates were held in over 2,800 American jails in 2013 (Minton and Golinelli 2014), many of these jails are very small (i.e., 639 jails have 25 or fewer beds) resulting in significant limitations in level and type of care afforded (American Jail Association 2003).

FAR from being secure places of rehabilitation, too many of Latin America's jails are violent incubators of crime.