Synonyms of jails

jails 1 of 2

noun

plural of jail

as in prisons

a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody

sentenced to three years in jail for his crime

Synonyms & Similar Words

• prisons
• penitentiaries
• brigs
• lockups
• stockades
• pens
• coops
• coolers
• cages
• big houses
• jugs
• dungeons
• bastilles
• tanks
• hocks
• guardrooms
• joints
• cells
• jailhouses
• cans
• clinks
• slammers
• pokeys
• nicks
• tolbooths
• quods
• bridewells
• stirs
• hoosegows
• slams
• calabooses
• wards
• holes
• holds
• hulks
• gulags
• guardhouses
• reformatories
• bull pens
• prison camps
• concentration camps
• labor camps
• work camps
• glasshouses
• keeps
• blocks
• reform schools
• training schools
• oubliettes
• stalags

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• outsides

jails

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of jail

as in imprisons

to put in or as if in prison

threatened to jail the punks if they so much as jaywalked

Synonyms & Similar Words

• imprisons
• interns
• incarcerates
• confines
• arrests
• detains
• commits
• locks (up)
• restrains
• gates
• jugs
• immures
• bars
• catches
• limits
• captures
• shuts
• apprehends
• restricts
• constrains
• impounds
• seizes
• binds
• keeps
• shackles
• holds
• pinches
• fetters
• busts
• impresses
• handcuffs
• enchains
• nabs
• picks up
• manacles
• shanghais
• trammels

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• discharges
• releases
• liberates
• frees
• enfranchises
• emancipates
• unchains
• unbinds
• unfetters
• uncages
• manumits

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of jails

Noun

And as the cops try to arrest them, only to realize their own jails aren’t accessible, the film expresses perfectly how the government trips over its own feet while resisting inevitable change. — Glenn Garner, Deadline, 10 Sep. 2026

Across California, individuals experiencing psychiatric emergencies are repeatedly funneled into de facto psychiatric facilities like local jails instead of receiving timely clinical care. — Kerry Martin, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Sep. 2026

One-third of people booked into Sacramento County jails each month were identified as homeless in the past year. — Theresa Clift, Sacbee.com, 9 Sep. 2026

In 2015, the Sheriff’s Department entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice to implement reforms on mental health and use-of-force in its jails. — James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2026

If the jails meet or exceed a target for 12 consecutive months, that category is removed as grounds for a contempt finding. — Robert Salonga, Mercury News, 8 Sep. 2026

In New York prisons and jails, the use of medications for opioid use disorder increased seven times over between 2022 and 2025. — Theresa Gaffney, STAT, 3 Sep. 2026

In Miami-Dade, the estimate is a roughly 20% cut on the $3 billion in property taxes that fund county services, including jails, ambulances, police, transit and the Jackson Health hospital system. — Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald, 2 Sep. 2026

Patrolling in pairs and marked by their black patent leather tricorn hats, the Guardia Civil sometimes forced refugees back into France but more often threw them into spartan jails until the British or the American consul sent for them. — Literary Hub, 31 Aug. 2026

Verb

Only 65 people rebooked into those counties’ jails two or more times through June 2026 were eventually released on bond. — Mario Ariza, ProPublica, 27 Aug. 2026

The facility is one of 11 Kentucky jails that contract with ICE to detain people. — Monroe Trombly, Louisville Courier Journal, 24 Feb. 2026

China, which jails human rights activists in Hong Kong, persecutes Uyghurs, has killed hundreds of thousands of Tibetans and has committed genocide against the Falun Gong, is on the UN Human Rights Council. — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 18 Feb. 2026

The regime that jails children also profits from drugs, human trafficking, and online scams. — Kim Aris, Time, 7 Nov. 2025