Here at Citizen Defense, PLLC, our aim is to educate our clients the best we can, which is why we’re going to cover a topic that often causes people confusion. . When someone is arrested or found guilty of a crime do they go to jail or prison? The correct answer is it depends. Like most things in the legal world, it’s overly complicated, yet after some long-winded explanations it is easily understood.
Let’s start at the very beginning of any criminal case with the police. You have an interaction with a police officer, a constable, a deputy, or any Texas law enforcement officer, and are arrested. Those officers will all more than likely take you to the closest county jail. In Texas, there are 254 counties and 252 of them have a county jail.
You arrive at your new living quarters; how long will you be here? Again, it depends. County jails houses innocent people that are awaiting their day in court and have not yet bailed out of jail. Whether you are accused of a smaller misdemeanor or a big ol’ felony you can sit in jail one day up to years waiting for your day in court. There are nuances to this, as with everything in the law, but just know if you can’t bail out and are wanting to fight your case, you will do your waiting in the county jail.
The county also houses guilty people or people that have pleaded to serve time in jail, and people with misdemeanors. If you were convicted or plead to a Class B misdemeanor you could spend a day up to six months. If you are doing time on a Class A misdemeanor then you could spend a day up to 365 days in the county jail.
In the early 1990’s, the Texas legislature thought that it was sending too many people to prison so they came up with a new idea, et’s send those people to a new version of jail instead, leading to the creation of the State Jail Felony.
Where do you go if you are convicted of a state jail felony? You go to state jail, no need to confuse anyone on that one. These locations are for those who have non-violent crimes or drug problems. There are about 20 state jail facilities, about four are operated by private companies. A state jail felony is still a felony but the sentence is from six months up to two years. The time you did in the county jail while you were waiting to figure out what was going to happen with this case does still count for you. So, if you did six months in county and are sentenced to six months in state jail, you have completed your time. Same if you do six months in county and are sentenced to a year in state jail you owe Texas six months in the state jail.
If you don’t go to county jail or state jail, you might be looking at going to the Big House, prison. People in prison were sentenced on third degree felonies up to capital crimes. The range of punishment starts at two years up to your entire life in the custody of the Texas Department of Corrections. If you are on death row awaiting the outcome of your case, you will be waiting in a prison. Now there are some exceptions of people that have been sentenced on a state jail felony or higher, but only ever did time in the county but that is because their lawyer pulled some strings to keep them out of prison and these are rare exceptions. There are about 104 prisons operating with a budget near $8.5 billion.
If you have a criminal case and are looking to try and avoid some of these places, give us a call at 512-522-2030 or visit us at fightmyfelony.com. Maybe we can help you stay out of these locations or at least shorten your stay if we can’t. If you have any legal issues, always consult a Lawyer.
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