A prisoner is someone being held in confinement.
Commonly, a prisoner is a criminal who is serving a prison sentence after being convicted of a crime, or a person who has been arrested by law enforcement and is being held in custody pending trial, whether or not the person is in prison, jail or other confinement. A prisoner may be classified as a federal prisoner or a state prisoner depending on whether the prisoner is in federal or state prison.
[Last updated in April of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]