Confidential Informants are not limited to crimes on the street. They can also be used in jails and prisons. “By definition, a jailhouse informant is an inmate, usually awaiting trial or sentencing, who claims to have been the recipient of an admission made by another prisoner awaiting trial, and who agrees to testify against that prisoner in a court of law, usually in exchange for some benefit.” (Genua) Which is quite different to that of a prison informant. “A prison informant, in contrast to the jailhouse informant, is an inmate in a penitentiary who provides, sometimes anonymously, confidential information to prison authorities regarding the alleged activities of fellow inmates who may consequently be subjected to administrative segregation,
