Scornful American put in prison by one US state (9)
I believe the answer is:
satirical
'scornful' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'american put in prison by one us state' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'put in' indicates putting letters inside.
'prison by' becomes 'stir' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'us state' becomes 'cal' (abbreviation for California).
'a' going inside 'stir' is 'satir'.
'satir'+'i'+'cal'='SATIRICAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for satirical that I've seen before include "Ironic - sarcastic" , "taunting?" , "Describing irreverent humour" , "of burlesque" , "Exposing human folly to ridicule" .)