This article deals with the practice of "detention" as a punishment for students. For information on Immigration detention, please see the article under that name.

Detention is a form of punishment that takes place in elementary school, middle school and high school, generally during a period after the end of the school day. Occasionally, it occurs before the school day, or during the weekend. In detention, students who have misbehaved must remain in a designated classroom for a certain time period as punishment for their misbehavior. Detention is generally used as a punishment for relatively minor infractions, such as talking in class out of turn or tardiness.

Generally, detention is carried out in a room that offers no amenities for leisure, so that students serving detention will have no outlet to distract them from their punishment. The students are usually monitored by a teacher, and may be required to either bring homework, sit quietly or perform some punitive task; they may be in the form of housekeeping, such as clapping blackboard erasers, academic in nature, by writing an essay, or moral drilling. A common example of the latter is repeatedly writing some admonishment on the blackboard. Multiple detentions may be given as the crime rises in severety, and if a stundent is constantly being punished by detention, and the results are unsatisfactory, suspension may be given.

Detention is usually the mildest form of punishment available to administrators, followed in severity by suspension and expulsion. Concerns have been raised about the fact that detentions are generally given without the order of a court, and are quite often given by the alleged victim of the act being punished. Appeals procedures are questionable, and in the United Kingdom, cannot overturn a detention before it has been served. They are considered by many to be incompatible with the right to freedom of movement, the right to due process of law, fair trial and the right to freedom from discrimination.

Pop culture references

There are numerous pop culture references to the practice of detention. For example, the opening credits to "The Simpsons" shows Bart Simpson in detention, repeatedly writing some ironic phrase along the lines of "I will not instigate revolution", "I do not have diplomatic immunity", or "I will not waste chalk".

"Detention" was also the name of an animated series that had a brief run on the Kids' WB in 1999 and 2000.[1] The series portrayed a group of misfit middle-schoolers who were constantly in detention, and scheming to overcome the obstacles that said condition presented.

The movie The Breakfast Club revolves around five disparate students bonding during a day in detention. The movie Some Kind of Wonderful features a significant detention twist — a student intentionally misbehaves in order to be put in detention with the girl of his dreams — but later learns that she has managed to talk her way out of the punishment. However, the student ends up befriending the dangerous-looking derelicts who are regularly on detention, and they ultimately help him out in his moment of greatest need.

In Hogwarts school in Harry Potter books, detention is practiced as a disciplinary measure. Ironically, when in book one Harry Potter and two other students are caught wandering in the castle at night, which is considered dangerous, for "detention" they are sent, also at night, to the even more dangerous Forbidden Forest.

Other forms of detention

Detention generally refers to a state or government holding a person in a particular area, either for interrogation, as punishment for a wrong, or as a precautionary measure while investigating a potential threat posed by that person. The term can also be used in reference to the holding of property, for the same reasons. The process of detainment may or may not have been preceded with arrest. The prisoners in Guantánamo Bay are for example referred to as "detainees".

Any form of imprisonment can be called detention, although the term is associated with persons who are being held temporarily without warrant or charge. For example, the alleged Taliban supporters captured in the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan have never been classified as "prisoners" by the federal government of the United States, but have consistently been referred to as "detainees", suggesting that they are only being held temporarily while their status is investigated.

The length of detention of suspected terrorists, with the justification of taking an action that would aid counter-terrorism, varies according to country or situation, as well as the laws which regulate it. Indefinite detention of an individual occurs frequently, especially in by United States] after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Terrorism Bill 2005 in the United Kingdom wishes to lengthen the current 14-day limit for detention without a arrest warrant or an indictment.