Your husband has been convicted and is being sent to a federal prison. While federal and state prisons share some similarities, there are three primary differences between state and federal incarceration.
- Housing jurisdiction.
- • The federal prison system is nationwide, which means your husband could end up in a prison clear across the country.
- • A state prison typically has to keep the inmates within the state lines.
Pelican Bay State Prison video
- No parole in federal.
The only federal inmates eligible for parole are inmates who were convicted before 1987, military inmates, foreign inmates and inmates whose crimes were committed in the District of Columbia. No other federal inmates are eligible for parole in the federal system.
Fugitive of the Week video
- Camps. While state prisons do have different inmate security levels, the federal system has facilities called “camps”. The camps are very low security with no fences, or partial fences around the property. Non-violent, compliant, white-collar inmates can be sent to the camps.
Inside Federal Prison Camps video
Final thoughts: There are pros and cons to being sent to a federal prison instead of state, however, it really isn’t within your husband’s control. What type of system he enters depends on whether he was convicted of a state or a federal crime.
