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Definition: prison from Collins English Dictionary

n

1 a public building used to house convicted criminals and accused persons remanded in custody and awaiting trial See also jail penitentiary reformatory

2 any place of confinement or seeming confinement

[C12: from Old French prisun, from Latin prēnsiō a capturing, from prehendere to lay hold of]


Prison

From Encyclopedia of Social Problems
A prison is both a physical container and an institution. A prison contains people, typically those who have violated criminal law and have been sentenced to a period of incarceration. Prisons, also called “penitentiaries” and “correctional facilities,” are distinguished from jails in the United States by length of confinement: jails incapacitate those who are charged with but not yet convicted of criminal offense or who are serving shorter sentences, typically one year or less. Prison and jail, along with probation, constitute the corrections component of the criminal justice system. Prisons have also been used as tools of governments seeking to incapacitate critics of their practices, hence the term political prisoners . Originally used to hold persons before trial, the prison as a penal institution—that is, the modern prison—came into existence by the end of the 18th century. As such, it denies inmates a range of basic personal rights and privileges. Restrictions on prisoners can…
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Full text Article PRISONIZATION

From Dictionary of Prisons and Punishment
‘Prisonization’ is a term popularized by Donald Clemmer in 1940 to indicate the process of socialization or assimilation that takes place when a prisoner enters prison. Although often characterized as a destructive process, prisonization is not simply a form of institutionalization as described by…
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Full text Article PRISON

From Dictionary of Probation and Offender Management
Imprisonment is the most extreme punishment available to sentencers. The prison population has risen steeply in recent decades. One of the main aims of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is to ensure that the time someone spends in prison is part of an integrated overall approach to the…
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Definition : Prisons are places that house individuals who have been sentenced for violating the criminal law. In some jurisdictions, remand or pre-trial detainees are also incarcerated in prison. Elsewhere, pre-trial detainees are held in jail as opposed to prison. The vast majority of inmates are…
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Full text Article Prisons

From Teach Yourself: Criminology: A Complete Introduction
This chapter considers the development of prisons and the role that they perform in the criminal justice system. In particular, it considers the tensions that exist between the view that prisons should be institutions that seek to bring about the reform and rehabilitation of offenders and the belief…
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Full text Article Prisonization

From The Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice
“Prisonization” refers to the process by which inmates adapt to prison life by adopting the mores and customs of inmate subcultures. Some regard prisonization as the socialization of inmates to the culture of prison. Prisonization of inmates enhances successful participation in prison society and…
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Full text Article Prisons

From The Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Prisons developed from the philosophy of punishing the offender. Classical criminology provided the theoretical foundation for the creation of institutions for the punishment of those who have been adjudicated criminal. Initially, the goal of prison systems was to correct deviant behavior and thus…
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Full text Article prison

From The Chambers Dictionary
a public building for the confinement of convicted criminals and accused persons waiting to be tried, a jail; any place of confinement or situation of intolerable restriction; custody, imprisonment. vt ( poetic ) to shut in prison; to enclose; to restrain. [OFr prisun , from L’ prensiō , -ōnis , for…
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Full text Article PRISONS

From The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
In Wales, as elsewhere, the concept of exacting punishment upon wrongdoers through incarceration did not exist in the medieval period. In the dungeons of their castles the native Welsh rulers and the march er-lords did have prisons of sorts, primarily for the confinement of hostages and political…
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Full text Article Prisons

From World of Criminal Justice, Gale
Over view of Spandau prison, British zone of...
Prisons are confinement facilities having custodial authority over adults sentenced to confinement for more than one year. In he United States there are federal prisons, state prisons and military prisons. Most prisons are public facilities, though in the United States private companies operate…
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Full text Article PRISON

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
I lived at Eton in the 1950s and know all about life in uncomfortable quarters. AITKEN, Jonathan The Times , January 1999. [When spotted sewing mailbags during his imprisonment for misappropriation of funds] Visitor : Ah, Bottomley, sewing? Bottomley : No, reaping. [Attr.] The black flower of…
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