FiveM jail vs admin jail: what each is for

On an ESX, QBCore or Qbox server, choose a police custody jail when officers arrest players for in-character crimes and the sentence should be played out in a prison, with jobs and escape attempts. Choose an admin jail when staff take a rule breaker out of play for a while, short of a ban. A police roleplay server with staff rules can run both, as separate tools.

Our Advanced Jail System V2 is a police custody and prison script, not an admin jail.

What to compare

Police custody jail

This is the kind Advanced Jail System V2 is built for.

• Who sends the player: jobs and minimum grades listed in Config.PoliceJobs (the police job from grade 0 by default) can run /jail, /lockup and /unjail. Officers can also open the Prison MDT with /jailmdt or the prison_mdt item, then set the time, jail type, notes and cell.
• Time inside: six group prison jobs take time off for each finished task spot, inmates trade for items paid in jail cigarettes, and there are three escape routes. Ankle monitors show a player’s location to every officer. Lockup holds a suspect in a cell without the prison activities until an officer releases them.
• How time and items behave: by default the sentence does not count down while the player is offline (Config.PassTimeOffline), and items are taken on jailing and picked up again at a reclaim point (Config.TakeItems, Config.Reclaim). Config.MaxJailTime caps a sentence in minutes; 0 means no cap.
• What it needs: the SQL file for your framework and ox_lib. It supports ox_inventory, qb-inventory, qs-inventory and ox_target. Prison locations default to Gabz Bolingbroke and can be moved to any MLO in the config.

A prison MLO on its own is a map: it gives the building, not the sentences. Officers on Advanced Police Job jail a suspect from its job menu, which hands the time to Advanced Jail System V2 (Config.Jail = 'tk', the default). Other scripts use the jail exports. The Advanced Jail System V2 showcase runs 6:16 and was recorded in January 2024, on an earlier version.

Groups in Config.AdminGroups (admin by default) can run the same commands. A staff member can send a player there, but that player then serves roleplay time with jobs and escape routes, so it does not work as a staff time-out.

Admin jail

Here, an admin jail means a staff tool: a command or admin-menu action that moves a rule breaker to an isolated spot for a set time, then returns them.

• Who sends the player: staff, by permission.
• Time inside: nothing to do; the wait is the punishment.
• How it ends: the timer runs out or staff release the player.
• Connects to: your staff permissions or admin menu.

txAdmin’s feature list names warnings and bans but no jail (README, read 19 October 2026). A server that wants a step between those two adds an admin jail resource or an admin menu that has one. TK Scripts does not sell an admin jail.

Which fits your server

• Officers arrest players and the sentence is played out: a police custody jail. Check your framework, your inventory, which prison map you run and which jobs and grades may jail.
• Only staff enforce rules and there is no police roleplay: an admin jail. A custody jail would add prison jobs and escapes nobody uses.
• Both: run both, and keep Config.AdminGroups to the staff who should also be able to send players to the roleplay prison.
• Sentences from an MDT: in All-in-one MDT V2 each charge has a minimum and maximum sentence. The MDT hands the sentence to the jail named in Config.Jail in its config.lua, which ships empty; 'tk' sends it to Advanced Jail System V2.

Before buying any jail script, find who can send a player there and what the player does inside. A job-and-grade list and prison activities mean a custody jail; a staff permission and a timer mean an admin jail.