[sandworm]

Yes. Drugs, at least the illegal ones, can/do/will land you in jail and eventually prison. Marijuana possession alone is enough, depending on how much you have and/or how it is packages (ie "with intent to distribute"). This depends on which state you are in, whether you are caught while crossing a state line (air travel) and the colour of the uniform on the officer who catches you (federal v. state). Some states have decriminalized possession but the US fed has not.

As a general rule, US "jails" house people awaiting trial and/or serving short sentences. "Prisons" house people with more than one year to serve. Prisons are generally much nicer places than jails.

(I went to a US law school, spent lots of time dealing with low-level offenders all of which were drug related. It's a horrible horrible system.)

[smcl]

"Prisons are generally much nicer places than jails"

If this piqued anyone's interest, you can see this in a little more detail in Louix Theroux's "Miami Mega Jail" two-part documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSM_UvZ-Jic (part 1 only, if you enjoy you should be able to find part 2). Like the GP I originally thought jail = prison, but it's definitely not and could even be a good deal worse in some cases.

[Vespasian]

Thank you for that last part. As a non US citizen i never knew there even was a difference between jails and prisons. Interesting :)

[sandworm]

I should have added that prisons are physically different. Most of the structures recognizable in the OP are prisons, multiple buildings separated by open yards. Jails are more likely to be a single converted building, with the roof open for exercise. They cannot be spotted on google maps.

Take a look at this infamous jail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Towers_Correctional_Facili...