- imprisonment
- The detention of a person contrary to his will. The act of putting or confining a person in prison. The restraint of a person's personal liberty; coercion exercised upon a person to prevent the free exercise of his powers of locomotion. 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), as by verbal compulsion and the display of available force. Every confinement of the person is an "imprisonment," whether it be in a prison, or in a private house, or even by forcibly detaining one in the public streets. Any unlawful exercise or show of force by which person is compelled to remain where he does not wish to be. McKendree v. Christy, 29 Ill.App.2d 866, 172 N.E.2d 380, 381.See also solitary confinement.@ false imprisonmentThe unlawful arrest or detention of a person without warrant, or by an illegal warrant, or a warrant illegally executed, and either in a prison or a place used temporarily for that purpose, or by force and constraint without confinement. False imprisonment consists in the unlawful detention of the person of another, for any length of time, whereby he is deprived of his personal liberty. Dupler v. Seubert, 69 Wis.2d 626, 230 N.W.2d 626, 631.The unlawful detention of the occupant of an automobile may be accomplished by driving so rapidly that he cannot alight. A person commits a misdemeanor if he knowingly restrains another unlawfully so as to interfere substantially with his liberty. Model Penal Code, No. 212.3.The tort of "false imprisonment" is the nonconsensual, intentional confinement of a person, without lawful privilege, for an appreciable length of time, however short. City of Newport Beach v. Sasse, 9 Cal.App.3d 803, 88 Cal.Rptr. 476, 480. Restatement, Second, Torts No. 35.See also false arrest- probable cause@
Black's law dictionary. HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK, M. A.. 1990.