prison sentence
Court-ordered confinement
A prison sentence is the period of confinement imposed by a court as punishment for a crime: He received a ten-year prison sentence for armed robbery.
The length reflects the severity of the offense and jurisdictional guidelines.
Sentences may be reduced through parole or good behavior.
To serve a prison sentence is to spend the required time incarcerated.
- life without paroleIncarceration until death
- maximum securityHighest-level prison classification
- penal systemFramework for punishing lawbreakers
- verdictOfficial court decision
- court orderBinding judicial directive
cell · wrongful conviction · parole board · guard · plea bargain · restorative justice · statute · deterrence · judge · throw the book · retribution · incapacitation · rehabilitation · mass incarceration · halfway house · stigma · prosecutor · years
- criminal justicearrest, jail, court, crime, guilty
- prisoncell block, inmate, jail, prisoner, warden
- prisonsinmates, cells, prisons, prisoner, penitentiary
- criminal recordrap sheet, criminal history, convictions, felony, misdemeanor
- legal penaltiesarrest, jail, jail time, fine, incarceration
- sentencinglife sentences, death row, consecutive sentences, probation, mandatory minimum
prison sentenceacquittal
Formal clearing of charges
probation · suspended sentence · parole · community service · warning
prison sentencefreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · release · exoneration · acquittal · parole
prison sentenceacquittal
Formal clearing of charges
not guilty verdict · dismissal · exoneration · case dismissed · charges dropped