If you or somebody you know is heading to a Minnesota County Jail you've come to the right place - we have interviews from various ex-inmates that have been in county jails across the state.

Low incarceration rate
Minnesota's incarceration rate is well below the US average at just 189 inmates per 100,000 residents. This is good and bad - good, obviously, because it seems to indicate that there is a lower crime rate which is great as far as your home community goes, but if you're heading to a county jail in Minnesota it does decrease the likelihood that you will be let out early due to overcrowding.

At least one county, Anoka County Jail, does offer up to a third of your time off for good behavior. If you are in jail a good rule of thumb is to listen to what the officers say and avoid any trouble (such as fighting with other inmates) and you should be given your "good time" (also known as time off for good behavior).

Jail vs. prison
There are a lot of differences between jail and prison though people seem to confuse them a lot. One of the problems is that these terms are generally used interchangably on television. What you see depicted on television, however, is almost always prison. People don't generally get raped in county jails, for instance. Since most people in jail are there for less than a year they usually do everything they can to avoid picking up additional charges which would result in them being shipped off to prison (where they are much more likely to serve a multi-year sentence).

Largest county jails in Minnesota
The largest county jail in Minnesota is Hennepin County Jail - while this county might not sound familiar to those from another state you have probably heard of the biggest city in Hennepin, Minneapolis. Hennepin is the only county in Minnesota with more than 1M residents.

Ramsey County Jail is also a large jail in Minnesota - St. Paul is the largest city in this county. Other large county jails include Dakota, Anoka and Washington County.