carceral

adjective

car·cer·al ˈkär-sə-rəl

: of, relating to, or suggesting a jail or prison

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Carceral is a member of a small but imposing family: like its close relations incarcerate (meaning "to imprison") and incarceration (meaning "confinement in a jail or prison"), its ultimate source is the Latin word for "prison," carcer. All three words have been in use since the 16th century, and all three are more common today than they were a century ago. Carceral has always been the rarest of the group, but its use has increased significantly since the turn of the current century, most often within academic or legal contexts.

Examples of carceral in a Sentence

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Now, the Trump administration has taken this carceral logic even further by detaining people at the base who previously lived within the United States. —

Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 7 Feb. 2025 Films examining lives in and around the carceral system, like Sing Sing and the doc Daughters, are current awards hopefuls. —

Mia Galuppo, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Jan. 2025 Carelessly handled, the nine-story doughnut form could easily have evoked stifling precedents like Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon or the (slightly) less carceral Marriott version. —

Justin Davidson, Curbed, 23 Jan. 2025 As the demographics of the carceral system, and the country, change, institutions will be forced to adapt to meet the unique needs of their aging populations. —

Tom Chiodo, Forbes, 24 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for carceral