| 1. | the holding of someone in jail or in an institution because he or she is regarded as a danger to the community. |
| 2. | English Law. imprisonment of habitual criminals for periods ranging from 5 to 14 years during which they are given corrective training or placed under psychiatric and medical care. |
| preventive detention n. The pretrial imprisonment without the right to bail of a person accused of a felony and judged dangerous to society. |
preventive detention
the practice of incarcerating accused individuals before trial on the assumption that their release would not be in the best interest of society-specifically, that they would be likely to commit additional crimes if they were released. Preventive detention is also used when the release of the accused is felt to be detrimental to the state's ability to carry out its investigation. In some countries the practice has been attacked as a denial of certain fundamental rights of the accused.
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