Re: Ok , so who grassed ...

THE Entity wrote:
On Sun, 07 May 2006 09:08:04 GMT, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@xxxxxxxxx>
wrought:

Reinhold (Rey) Aman <aman@xxxxxxxxx> had it:

The main reason why I used "jailbird" was to echo Mr Dean's inaccurate
(but popular) use of that term for "ex-convicts" or "felons" who have
done time in prison.

I remind the panel that UK usage does not distinguish between "jail"
and "prison" to the same extent as US usage.

Is" jail/gaol" used in formal or official usage at all in BrE any
more? The places are all called "HM Prisons" or "Detention Centres" or
some such, I think, and if someone spends the night in the cells at
the police station the police or CPS reports wouldn't say they were
"jailed/gaoled" but rather "held in custody", wouldn't they?

In AmE many jails as well as most prisons seem to be formally
"correctional facilities" or the like (though some prisons are less
euphemistically "penitentiaries"), but at least some of the jails in New
York (LCIA) are "detention centers".

In informal usage, I think AmE tends often to use "jail" to mean what are
actually prisons rather than jails in a precise sense, a usage which I
think is partly what Rey has criticized.


--
Salvatore Volatile







.

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