Mildred was arrested for drunkenness and spent a night in the city jail.
2. A short-term detaining facility for those awaiting trial or for those convicted of minor offences: Aaron was kept in the city jail while he was being tried for murder and, if convicted, he would be sent to the state prison.Trina was sentenced to forty years in a federal penitentiary for the crime that she committed.
In British English, there is no clear difference between jail and prison, and the word penitentiary is apparently not used in Great Britain.
The alleged criminal was held in the local jail which his British lawyer always referred to as the local gaol while his client was awaiting his trial.
When he was found guilty and sentenced, Adam was sent to the state penitentiary which his lawyer referred to as a prison.
2. Etymology: just like prehensile, comprehend, comprehensible, etc., prison essentially comes from Latin prehendere, "to seize".
From this origin, the noun prehensio, "seizure", was contracted to prensio, which in Old French was presented as prisun.
At that time, it came to be used specifically for "imprisonment" and then it became the "place of imprisonment" or a "prison".
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A period, because it is at the end of a sentence.