If you find yourself on the wrong side of the law in Ohio you might end up in one of the state's eighty-eight county jails. All county jails, however, are not created equal. If you find yourself in a larger facility, such as Cuyahoga County Jail, you are more likely to find a slightly rougher inmate population and higher risk of overcrowding.

Tax payers pick up the tab for inmates in the various county jails across the state. The average cost for one year of inmate incarceration in Ohio is about $25,000. In order to reduce costs many jails put the inmates to work - they do tasks such as working in the kitchen and sometimes even landscaping.

Note that when we use the term "jail" we are referring to county facilities as opposed to state prisons. Jails are much different in that the inmates are typically sentenced to less serious crimes and in general spend less than a year inside the facility. Prisons, on the otherhand, will often have inmates who spend several years behind bars.

Because these inmate populations are so different the security levels also differ. It is very unusual for an inmate to escape from county jail (when this does happen it is usually for an inmate that is being temporarily held at the jail prior to transfer to a state prison).