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IMPRISONMENT Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

The act of putting or confining a man in prison ; the restraint of a man’s personal liberty; coercion exercised upon a person to prevent the free exercise of his powers of locomotion. State v. Shaw, 73 Vt. 140. 50 Atl. 803; In re Langs- low, 107N. Y. 314, 00 N. E. 500; In re Langan (C. C.) 123 Fed. 134; Steere v. Field, 22 Fed. Cas.1221.It is not a necessary part of the definition that the confinement should be in a place usually appropriated to that purpose; it may be in a locality used only for the specific occasion; or it may take place without the actual application of any physical agencies of restraint, (such as locks or bars,) but by verbal compulsion and the display of available force. See Pike v. Hanson, 9 N. II. 491.Any forcible detention of a man’s person, or control over his movements, is imprisonment. Lauson v. Buzincs, 3 liar. (Del.) 410.

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