From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdetention centredeˈtention ˌcentre British English, detention center American English noun [countable] SCJSEa place where people are kept and prevented from escaping, especially people who have entered the country illegally, or young people who have committed crimes
Examples from the Corpus
detention centre• So they put me in a detention centre for six months.• Read in studio A Government plan to turn a disused juvenile prison into a detention centre for immigrants has been strongly criticised.• It's planned to turn part of the site into a detention centre for the immigration service.• The judge gave Abraham a seven-year sentence in a juvenile detention centre, after which he will be released.• Read in studio Campaigners against a new detention centre for the immigration service have held a torchlight protest.• Read in studio A new detention centre for immigrants has taken delivery of its first inmates, despite protests from local people.• Then again you may be taken from the detention centre to Pentonville Prison and locked up there if you complain.• In this detention centre, contemptuous and inhuman attitudes have hardened into set rules. 