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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of detention center¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

“It’s been intense and a lot,” said Dominique Dandridge, who lives across the street from the detention center and has watched as vans arrive and depart at all hours of the night.

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Within days, she had been moved to the higher-security Houston Federal Detention Center.

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Jorge Tafolla Jr., a 48-year-old Hesperia resident, was arrested Wednesday at his home and booked into West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of homicide and kidnapping, according to a Montclair Police Department news release.

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Advocates for detainees are drawing attention to what they describe as unhealthy conditions, including in the state’s newest detention center.

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CoreCivic’s 2,560-bed immigration detention center there sits on 70 acres in the Mohave Desert about 80 miles east of Bakersfield.

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