detention center

[ dih-ten-shuhn sen-ter ]

noun

1. a facility maintained by the civil authorities for persons charged with a crime, immigrants awaiting deportation rulings, or sometimes witnesses before a trial.
2. juvenile detention center ( def ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of detention center¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Her eldest son, an 18-year-old, is being held separately as an adult in a detention center.

From The Daily Beast

The judges were not given a per capita fee for each child sentenced to the detention center.

From The Daily Beast

In Camp X-Ray, she plays Amy Cole, a newly enlisted guard at Guantanamo Bay detention center.

From The Daily Beast

Couch was not sentenced to an iota of time in a juvenile detention center or prison.

From The Daily Beast

But if Joe knows a corrupt clerk at the Metropolitan Detention Center he can confirm that the associate was actually there.

From The Daily Beast