Ok... so help me out here... what is the difference between jail & prison?
That's a very interesting distinction. All of ours belong to The Queen.
In my state, jails are run by the county govt and hold prisoners for one year or less, generally speaking. The state govt runs the prisons for people who are incarcerated for longer terms.
I'm pretty sure everyone who is charged stays in the county lock-up until trial and sentencing, so the counties are potentially more dangerous than the state correctional institutions, because you have the kids who got arrested at political protests potentially mixing with the mother rapers.
Also, I don't think the county jails are as tightly controlled as the state prisons, in terms of control over the inmates.
In any case, no, I've never been arrested although I almost got picked up once. I was drunk. It was late at night. I was walking to a bus stop with a girl I'd been dating. She was, quite literally, a bikini model, in addition to being a waitress.
I kicked an empty cardboard box that was on the sidewalk. The street was almost entirely deserted. Suddenly a car heaves up beside us, facing the wrong way for traffic.
A dildo with a mustache yells out the car window, "Do you wanna dance? Because you can dance in the can!" and flashes a Cracker Jack badge at us. My guess is he wasn't a real cop, but a state constable. (in our state, most state constables are kind of like part-time Rambos who pretend to be real police officers).
I was drunk and completely flabbergasted that he would threaten me like that. So I started to walk toward the car, momentarily speechless but about to burst an artery I was so pissed.
Blondie with the outstanding rack stepped in front of me and apologized profusely to the dick.