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

He was originally given an indeterminate sentence, with a minimum term of eight years in February 2012.

From The Guardian • Nov. 29, 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