prison

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former penal settlement at Kingston

prisoner rehabilitation

Leavenworth: United States Penitentiary

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prison — prison Mount Olive Correctional Complex, a maximum-security prison in Mount Olive, West Virginia.

prison

penology

Also known as: penitentiary

Written by

Andrew G. Coyle

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 12, 2026 •History

prison, an institution for the confinement of persons who have been remanded (held) in custody by a judicial authority or who have been deprived of their liberty following conviction for a crime. A person found guilty of a felony or a misdemeanour may be required to serve a prison sentence. The holding of accused persons awaiting trial remains an important function of contemporary prisons, and in some countries such persons constitute the majority of the...

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