The ruling on considering imprisonment as a form of banishment

Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is imprisonment now considered a form of banishment?

Answer:
No, the Hanafis say yes. According to the Hanafis, it is considered banishment, just as they said regarding banishment from the land; they said its meaning is imprisonment. However, the majority say no. Banishment is when a person is expelled from the country he is in to another country so that the place changes and the situation changes, because he may be in a corrupt environment or with bad friends, so he is kept away from them in a place where no one knows him. Also, so that he is not mocked in the town; the people who do not know him go away, and no harm comes to him from being mocked or from...