indeterminate sentence

American  

noun

Criminal Law.

1. a penalty, imposed by a court, that has relatively wide limits or no limits, as one of imprisonment for one to ten years.

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indeterminate sentence British  

noun

1. law a prison sentence the length of which depends on the prisoner's conduct

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Etymology

Origin of indeterminate sentence

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

He was convicted and given an indeterminate sentence of one year to life and spent the next decade at California’s Soledad and San Quentin prisons, much of it in solitary confinement.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 24, 2022

It is understood that McCann was released on lifelong licence in February 2017 after serving 10 years of a now scrapped indeterminate sentence for aggravated burglary.

From The Guardian • May 1, 2019

Instead state prison administrators used the indeterminate sentence as a cudgel to pathologize prisoners’ grievances and encourage mindless submission to authority.

From Salon • Dec. 27, 2018

Judges would hand down an indeterminate sentence with a range of years, such as five-to-10 or 25-to-life.

From Washington Post • Jul. 10, 2015

For others, it was an indeterminate sentence of months or years.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover