"Of course, it's barbaric to think of a prison as a place of
punishment," I continued. "A prison is a place to keep a criminal away
from society for a specific time so he can't harm that society for that
time. Punishment, rehabilitation, all of it is secondary to that. The
purpose of confinement is confinement."
* * * * *
The councilman edged forward an inch. "And you really think Dreamland
is the most humane confinement possible?"
"Well," I hedged, "it's the most humane we've found yet. I suppose
living through a--uh--movie with full sensory participation for year
after year can get boring."
"I should think so," Coleman said emphatically. "Warden, don't you
sometimes feel the old system where the prisoners had the diversions
of riots, solitary confinement, television, and jailbreaks may have
made time easier to serve? Do these men ever think they are _actually_
living these vicarious adventures?"
That was a question that made all of us in the Dreamland service
uneasy. "No, Councilman, they don't. They know they aren't really
Alexander of Macedonia, Tarzan, Casanova, or Buffalo Bill. They are
conscious of all the time that is being spent out of their real lives;
they know they have relatives and friends outside the dream. They know,
unless--"