• A main entrance, which may be known as the “gatelodge” or “sally port.”
• A religious facility, which will often house chaplaincy offices and facilities for counselling of individuals or groups.
• An “education facility”, often including a library, providing adult education or continuing education opportunities.
• A gym or an exercise yard, a fenced, usually open-air-area which prisoners may use for recreational and exercise purposes.
• A healthcare facility or hospital.
• A segregation unit (also called a 'block' or “isolation cell”), used to separate unruly, dangerous, or vulnerable prisoners from the general population, also sometimes used as punishment (see solitary confinement).
• A section of vulnerable prisoners (VPs), or protective custody (PC) units, used to accommodate prisoners classified as vulnerable, such as sex offenders, former police officers, informants, and those that have gotten into debt or trouble with other prisoners.
• A section of safe cells, used to keep prisoners under constant visual observation, for example when considered at risk of suicide.
• A visiting area, where prisoners may be allowed restricted contact with relatives, friends, lawyers, or other people.
• A death row in some prisons, a section for criminals awaiting execution.
• A staff accommodation area, where staff and corrections officers live in the prison, typical of historical prisons.
• A service/facilities area housing support facilities like kitchens.
• Industrial or agricultural plants operated with convict labor.
• A recreational area containing a TV and pool table.
Prisons are normally surrounded by fencing, walls, earthworks, geographical features, or other barriers to prevent escape. Multiple barriers, concertina wire, electrified fencing, secured and defensible main gates, armed guard towers, lighting, motion sensors, dogs, and roving patrols may all also be present depending on the level of security. Remotely controlled doors, CCTV monitoring, alarms, cages, restraints, nonlethal and lethal weapons, riot-control gear and physical segregation of units and prisoners may all also be present within a prison to monitor and control the movement and activity of prisoners within the facility.
Juvenile prisons: prisons for juveniles (people under 17 or 18, depending on the jurisdiction) are known as young offender institutes or similar designation and hold minors who have been remanded into custody or serving sentence. Many countries have their own age of criminal responsibility in which children are deemed legally responsible for their actions for a crime.