Jails hold people awaiting trial, people being transported to prison, and people serving short sentences.
Prisons hold people convicted of crimes and serving longer sentences.
In the year before that date, total jail population grew 6.7 percent. Rising numbers of drug offenders in local jails was the largest single factor for the population increase. The number of drug offenders in jails rose from 20,800 in 1983 to 91,000 in 1989. Although the report does not have data on jail population and offenses for more recent years, the authors estimate that at the rate of population increase in 1989, more than 105,800 people would have been in local jails on drug charges in 1993. Counties and municipalities operate the nation's local jails, housing about one-third of all people incarcerated in the United States.