This is a list of longest prison sentences ever given to a single person, worldwide. Listed are instances where people have been sentenced to jail terms in excess of a human lifetime, but effectively the same purpose. Note that many national legislations worldwide do not allow for such sentences.
Since the sentence given is not necessarily equivalent to time served, the list of longest prison sentences served for those who have spent the longest continuous time in prison.
These sentences differ technically from sentences of life imprisonment in that the designated jail times have specific lengths, although in practice they serve the same purpose.