He was sentenced to another month in prison to run consecutive to his current term of detention.

The sentence was later commuted to an indefinite term of detention.

This is true not just in terms of detentions but also in the increasing talk about placing restrictions on immigration.

The Government repeatedly made the point that they had been advised by the police that 90 days was a necessary term of detention to prevent terrorism:

The reason for the killing was to hold up the trial so that the Mafia bosses' legal terms of detention would expire and they would be freed.

His term of detention was decided by police and government authorities and he was not allowed to present a defence or to be represented by a lawyer.

Though the terms of detention may vary, a suspect is usually confined at home under guard and ordinarily not allowed telephone contact or unauthorized visitors other than lawyers.

The term of detention is up to the maximum allowed for adult imprisonment for the relevant offence, and the same custody threshold ("so serious") applies as in the case of the adult court.

While he has no authority to set a specific term of detention, he said they should spend "very, very many years" in confinement, before the state concludes they have been rehabilitated and are fit for release.

The substitution of a term of detention under section 53(2) would have amounted to an increase in the sentence, which is permissible only on a reference by the Attorney General under Criminal Justice Act 1988, s.36.

It was argued that he should have been sentenced to a term of detention in a young offender institution, and that he did not qualify for a custodial sentence for that purpose under Criminal Justice Act 1982, s.1(4) and 1(4A).

Decision : it would have been open to the sentencer to impose a term of detention under Children and Young Persons Act 1933, S.53(2), but he had made no reference to the section and it was clear that the sentence was unlawful.

The appellant had been sentenced to a term of detention which took effect as a sentence of 12 months' detention in a young offender institution, and the Court's powers were limited to declaring that that was the effect of the sentence passed by the Crown Court.

For lower ranks, he can impose a term of detention in a unit guardhouse, or at the Military Corrective Training Centre in Colchester, of up to 28 days, or 90 days in serious cases, or a requirement to carry out extra work or drill, or loss of entitlement to leave.