penitentiary as a place of jailing pre-trial (and hence, before a conviction)edit
1973, The Southeastern Reporter:
[…] to which defendant was entitled under statute providing that any person sentenced by court to term of confinement in penitentiary shall have deducted from the term all time actually spent in jail or penitentiary awaiting trial or pending appeal, ...
2007, James Ciment, The Home Front Encyclopedia: United States, Britain, and Canada in World Wars I and II, ABC-CLIO (→ISBN), page 103:
Haywood, confined in the Idaho penitentiary awaiting trial, ran for governor of Colorado as a socialist, took a correspondence law course, and appealed his arrest to the U.S. Supreme Court, which condemned the methods of the arrest but let it [stand].
2013, Charles H Harris, Louis R Sadler, The Plan de San Diego: Tejano Rebellion, Mexican Intrigue, U of Nebraska Press (→ISBN), page 216:
“Informant does not remember the date but says positively that it was after the United States had been officially informed that de la Rosa was detained in the Monterrey penitentiary awaiting trial. Informant also said […]"
1832, Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court, page 2152:
On. Count 48, involving possession of the Publisher's Outlet on West 42nd Street, the defendant is fined the sum of three thousand ($3,000) dollars, or one year in the New York City Penitentiary, and, in addition thereto, he is sentenced to ...
1869, East Saginaw (Saginaw, Mich.), The Charter of the City of East Saginaw, as Enacted & Amended by the Legislature of the State of Michigan, Together with Other Acts of the Legislature, for the Use of the Officers of the City, page 96:
The Common Council of said city shall have power and authority whenever they shall deem it expedient, to provide a city penitentiary, where all persons charged with, or convicted of, offences or misdemeanors against the charter, by-laws or [other laws shall be held].
1892, Grand Rapids (Mich.)., Charter of the City of Grand Rapids, page 132:
... and if not, then to commit the defendant to the county or city jail, or city penitentiary, Detroit House of Correction, or the State House of Correction at Ionia, for such time as shall have been fixed therein by the court from which such execution ...
2007, Donald B. Smith, Honoré Jaxon: Prairie Visionary, Coteau Books (→ISBN), page 186:
Mertig spent the spring and early summer of 1946 serving a six-month jail term in the psychopathic cellblock of the New York City Penitentiary and Workhouse, Rikers Island, East River.
"British penitentiary", or British uses of the wordedit
1827, Roberts Vaux, Letter on the Penitentiary System of Pennsylvania: Addressed to William Roscoe, Esquire, of Toxteth Park, Near Liverpool, page 6:
... carry these excellent principles into operation, “the celebrated system of penitentiary discipline has been abandoned,” ... and pollution, which the unrestrained association of persons of all ages, colours, and sexes, and for all grades of crime, ...
1993, Janet Semple, Bentham's Prison : A Study of the Panopticon Penitentiary: A Study of the Panopticon Penitentiary, Clarendon Press (→ISBN), page 152:
THE CRIMINAL MIND
Bentham called the panopticon, 'a mill for grinding rogues honest'. This repellent image colours many people's reaction to the scheme. It seems to deprive the criminal of humanity, degrading him to level of a machine, ...
2011, Tim Bonyhady, Good Living Street: Portrait of a Patron Family, Vienna 1900, Pantheon (→ISBN), page 222:
That Gretl, Kathe, and Annelore should go to Australia, a country of immigration since it became a British penitentiary in 1788, was probably Sir Harry's idea.
