| a penalty, imposed by a court, that has relatively wide limits or no limits, as one of imprisonment for one to ten years. |
indeterminate sentence
in law, term of imprisonment with no definite duration within a prescribed maximum. Eligibility for parole is determined by the parole authority. In this respect, an indeterminate sentence differs from a definite one in that statutes prescribing the latter usually provide for parole eligibility after a specified fraction of the full term-in most countries, from one-half to two-thirds of the original sentence
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