Jimmy Irons are you a guard? Those are pretty much all blanket statements.
OP, there are state and federal prisons in the US (not counting county jails which can be worse than many prisons), which have varying degrees of everything you asked about. Can you ask more specific questions?
The book "The Hot House" is awesome, written by a guy who went inside a federal pen in the late 80's. He wrote it but...really 3 or 4 prisoners wrote it through him.
Many people in America looking at long (2+ years) in a county jail will push to get sent to prison if they know they will probably go into a minimum security joint. Often done through getting their probation revoked. Jail usually means no yard time, no sunlight, no rec, no benefits of any kind that you might get in prison, such as a library, access to computers/education, and lifting weights.
