Its not a penal sentence, no; insofar as it is a pinishment it is a punishment for an ongoing offense, and continues as long as the offense continues.

And, blackmail is threatening to reveal a secret to get someone to comply, so, no, it's not that.

Yeah, those insignificant pedantic reasons make it not a punishment and not blackmail /s

I didn't say it's not a punishment.

But it's far closer to extortion than blackmail.

But that's true of compulsory legal process generally, not a special feature of confinement for contempt.

That's literally how contempt of court works. The alternative is chaos, as people would just refuse to participate in the legal system with no repercussions.

There are all kinds of ways the justice system can induce compliance with legal orders, from fines to imprisonment, and none of them constitute extortion.

What happened to that whole fifth amendment thing?

> What happened to that whole fifth amendment thing?

Hence the immunity.

“But the Fifth Amendment doesn’t provide an absolute right to remain silent and not answer any questions. Rather, it protects people from having to answer incriminating questions about themselves.”

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/immunity-exchange-te...