in modern day, at least stories I heard, criminals will be placed in temp holding sell (worst places), once max time in temp jail is expiring (legally allowed), they just add new charges, so effectively, you will be held in worst jail cell possible for weeks if not months, this is how I understood from stories of multiple life time criminals with 10+ years in jail time served.
This is the equivalent of 19th century criminals burying their cash. It’s fine. You just put the person in jail until they cooperate or die.