What does “circular” mean in the context below? I’m not quite sure which of the many dictionary definitions of the word fits here. Thanks in advance!

But while detentions have ramped up i recent years, they have operated almost entirely in the dark - no public records exist of how many people are held in pretrial detention. An analysis by the NY Times counts for the first time the number of detainees and exposes the *circular* legal process that can hold people indefinitely.

Question

What does “circular” mean in the context below? I’m not quite sure which of the many dictionary definitions of the word fits here. Thanks in advance!

But while detentions have ramped up i recent years, they have operated almost entirely in the dark - no public records exist of how many people are held in pretrial detention. An analysis by the NY Times counts for the first time the number of detainees and exposes the *circular* legal process that can hold people indefinitely.

Answer

Hi, it comes from the analogy of going around in a circle, where people want to reach a goal but instead they take a few steps then go back to the beginning and start all over again. When they do this many times, they go around in a circle, i.e. you have a circular process.

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