An unlawful method, used by some policemen and jailers of extorting confessions by force or terror from suspected persons. It is also called the “third degree.” Like the administration of criminal law generally, this is a disgrace to American civilization.
1902. The prisoner has become almost a physical wreck, under the “sweat-box” ordeal.—Chicago paper, quoted in a letter to the N.Y. Nation, Aug. 28, p. 169.
