detention centredeˈtention ˌcentre British English, detention center American English noun [countable] 
Examples
ExamplesEXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
Thesaurus- In this detention centre, contemptuous and inhuman attitudes have hardened into set rules.
- It's planned to turn part of the site into a detention centre for the immigration service.
- Read in studio A Government plan to turn a disused juvenile prison into a detention centre for immigrants has been strongly criticised.
- Read in studio A new detention centre for immigrants has taken delivery of its first inmates, despite protests from local people.
- Read in studio Campaigners against a new detention centre for the immigration service have held a torchlight protest.
- So they put me in a detention centre for six months.
- The judge gave Abraham a seven-year sentence in a juvenile detention centre, after which he will be released.
- Then again you may be taken from the detention centre to Pentonville Prison and locked up there if you complain.
Longman Language Activatora place where people are kept as punishment► prison
a place where people are kept and prevented from escaping, especially people who have entered the country illegally, or young people who have committed crimes a large building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime: · Conditions in the prison were shocking.· a maximum security prisonin prison: · Johnson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.· The prosecuting lawyers say that Price may face life in prison.be released from prison: · When he was released from prison, Mandela was interviewed in Zambia.prison officials/conditions/regulations etc: · Clayton will be released on Tuesday after serving seven years, prison officials said.prison sentence (=how long someone has to spend in prison): · a fifteen-year prison sentence
► jail a prison, or similar smaller building where prisoners who are waiting for a trial are kept: · This old building is the jail that Butch Cassidy escaped from in 1887.· Alfassi was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County jail.in jail: · 58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes.be put/thrown in jail: · The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing.go to jail/be sent to jail: · Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and went to jail.jail sentence/term (=how long someone has to spend in jail): · The riots ended with long jail terms for 338 mobsters.
► penitentiary American a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes: · The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater.· the Ohio State penitentiary· the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island
► cell a small room in a prison or police station, where someone is kept as a punishment: · Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.prison/jail cell: · The prison cells have doors of heavy steel.
► detention centre British /detention center American a place where young people who have done something illegal are kept, because they are too young to go to prison: · Kevin, who had been abandoned by his mother, had been in and out of detention centres all his life.· a juvenile detention center
WORD SETS► Jail & punishmentborstal, nouncell, nounchain, nounchain gang, nounconcentration camp, nounconcurrent, adjectiveconfinement, nounconvict, nouncorrectional, adjectivecustodial sentence, nouncustody, noundeath row, noundetainee, noundetention, noundetention centre, noundrunk tank, noundungeon, nounfetter, verbfetters, noungaol, gaoler, noungovernor, nounguard, verbgulag, nounhandcuff, verbhandcuffs, nounincarcerate, verbinmate, nouninside, adverbintern, verbinternee, nouninternment, nounjailbreak, nounlabour camp, nounlifer, nounmanacle, nounold lag, nounopen prison, nounoubliette, nounparole, nounparole, verbpen, nounpenal, adjectivepenitentiary, nounpillory, nounpokey, nounpolitical prisoner, nounporridge, nounpreventive detention, nounprison, nounprison camp, nounprisoner, nounprisoner of conscience, nounprisoner of war, nounprison visitor, nounreformatory, nounremand home, nounremission, nounserve, verbshackle, nounshackle, verbsolitary, nounsolitary confinement, nounstretch, nounthumbscrew, nounwarden, nounwarder, nounyardbird, noun