Imprisonment (redirected from imprison)

Imprisonment

See also Isolation.

Alcatraz Island

former federal maximum security penitentiary, near San Francisco; “escapeproof.” [Am. Hist.: Flexner, 218]

Altmark, the

German prison ship in World War II. [Br. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 27]

Andersonville

in southwest Georgia; imprisoned Union soldiers died under wretched conditions. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 99]

Attica

well-known prison in Attica, New York; remembered for its riot (1971). [Am. Hist.: NCE, 182]

Bajazeth

Turkish emperor confined to a cage by Tamburlaine. [Br. Drama: Tamburlaine the Great in Magill I, 950]

ball and chain

originally penological, now generalized symbol. [Western Folklore: Jobes, 176]

Bastille

Paris prison stormed on July 14, 1789. [Fr. Hist.: Worth, 21]

Birdman of Alcatraz

Robert F. Stroud (1890–1963), convicted murderer, became ornithologist in prison. [Am. Culture: Misc.]

Black Hole of Calcutta

Indian dungeon in which overcrowding suffocated prisoners. [Br. Hist.: Harbottle, 45–46]

Bok, Yakov

held in prison for two years under dreadful conditions. [Am. Lit.: Bernard Malamud The Fixer]

Cereno, Benito

captain held captive by mutinous slaves. [Am. Lit.: Benito Cereno]

Count of Monte Cristo

Edmond Dantes; wrongly imprisoned in the dungeons of Chateau D’If. . [Fr. Lit.: The Count of Monte Cristo, Magill I, 158–160]

Denisovitch, Ivan

struggles to stay alive in a Soviet prison camp. [Russ. Lit.: Solzhenitzyn One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch]

Devil’s Island

Guiana island penal colony (1852–1938); Alfred Dreyfus among famous prisoners there. [Fr. Hist.: NCE, 754]

Droma

chain forged to fetter wolf, Fenris. [Norse Myth.: LLEI, I: 326]

Enormous Room, The

portrays three months behind bars in France. [Am. Lit.: The Enormous Room]

Falconer

prison where former professor Farragut, who had killed his brother, witnesses the torments and chaos of the penal system. [Am. Lit.: Cheever Falconer in Weiss, 151]

Fortunato

walled up to die in catacomb niche. [Am. Lit.: “The Cask of Amontillado” in Portable Poe, 309–316]

Fotheringay

Mary Stuart’s final prison and place of execution (1587). [Br. Hist.: Grun, 260]

Hogan’s Heroes

incarcerated in Stalag 13, unlikeliest of POW camps. [TV: Terrace, I, 357–358]

House of the Dead, The

account of four years in the fortress-prison of Omsk. [Russ. Lit.: Dostoevsky The House of the Dead in Benét, 480]

Ibbetson, Peter

imprisoned for life, spends all his nights in blissful dreams of existence with his beloved. [Br. Lit. & Am. Opera: G. du Maurier Peter Ibbetson in Magill I, 736]

Leavenworth

the oldest military prison (est. 1874); also the name of a state penitentiary. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 984]

Little Dorrit

born and grew up in the prison where for twenty years her father is incarcerated for debt. [Br. Lit.: Dickens Little Dorrit]

Man in the Iron Mask

mystery prisoner; legendary contender for Louis XIV’s throne. [Fr. Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 460, 555]

Manette, Dr.

lost memory during 18-year term in France. [Br. Lit.: A Tale of Two Cities]

Marshalsea

ancient London prison, long used for incarcerating debtors. [Br. Hist.: Benét, 640]

Newgate

famed jail of London in centuries past. [Br. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 754]

Pickwick, Mr

. (Samuel) imprisoned for refusing to pay dam-ages in a breach-of-promise suit. [Br. Lit.: Dickens Pickwick Papers]

Prisoner of Chillon, The

poem by Lord Byron; based on imprisonment of François de Bonnivard. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 817]

Rubashov, Nicholas

political prisoner held in isolation and brutally questioned. [Br. Lit.: Arthur Koestler Darkness at Noon in Magill I, 187]

San Quentin

famous western California prison (established in 1852); the subject of many songs. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2419]

Sing Sing

notoriously harsh state prison at Ossining, New York. [Am. Hist.: Flexner, 219]

Torquilstone Front

de Boeuf’s castle, where he imprisoned Rowena, Rebecca, and Isaac. [Br. Lit.: Walter Scott Ivanhoe]

Tower of London

famed as jail. [Br. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1094]

Ugolino

treacherous 13th-century count of Pisa, imprisoned and starved to death with his sons and grandsons. [Ital. Poetry: Inferno]

Valjean, Jean

spent nineteen years in prison for stealing loaf of bread. [Fr. Lit.: Les Misérables]

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Imprisonment 

the most stringent form of punishment entailing deprivation of freedom.

In the USSR, imprisonment is very infrequent; as a rule, the penalty of deprivation of freedom takes the form of a term of confinement in a correctional labor colony. Under Soviet criminal law, imprisonment may be imposed for all or part of the term of deprivation of freedom in the case of persons who have committed serious crimes or who are dangerous recidivists. The law provides that individuals (except minors) guilty of malicious transgressions in a correctional labor colony may be transferred to a prison for a period of up to three years. Prisoners who show model behavior and conscientious work attitudes may have their prison sentence reduced by half; the remainder of the sentence is then served in a correctional labor colony. Soviet law does not provide for life imprisonment.

The bourgeois states currently use imprisonment as the prevailing penalty entailing deprivation of freedom. Imprisonment may be for an indefinite period (as in France, for example) or for life (as in the United States).