In a land not far from our own and a time not too far from now,
the courts finally ruled for fair treatment of inmates — somehow.
The prisons reformed with a focus on reconciliation and rehabilitation
and gone suddenly were the Bastilles of militarization and industrialization.

The detoxification of incarceration tried something new: humanization;
reclamation through reorganization, diversification, and idealization.
Cells widened, cushioned, fattened; convicts freshened and heartened.
The society in captivity prospered as the world outside sharpened.

Fewer cells led to more personalized, thoughtful curing
where inmates could truly break free from their unlawful luring.
The process worked great but simply took time,
and while prisons filled up, lines backed up the courtroom.
Inmates-in-waiting became those convicted of a crime,
ready to change — as soon as confinement had a room.

With a growing list of criminals waiting in holding,
science stepped in to stop a crisis from unfolding.
Umbra’s Domain was set up quietly and militarily,
built underground to hold inmates-in-waiting temporarily:
a gigantic facility capable of preservative cryogenic freezing,
including the operation, long-term storage, and eventual unfreezing.
Comatose criminals supplied intravenous nutrition
are magnitudes easier to manage than those with cognition.

Of course there were those deemed too far gone for reclamation,
and those, too, skipped Umbra’s temporal gestation.
Their futility gave way to utility, mice for mental docility,
rehabilitative shortcuts originally met with hostility,
yet performed carefully with culpability, nobility, and civility:
those unfit for restorative incarceration were manually repaired,
minor cognitive castration for those too criminally impaired;
spared time ensnared, yet with the same conclusion:
able to play their part again in society and enjoy their inclusion.

In a land not far from our own and a time not too far from now,
the courts finally ruled for fair treatment of inmates somehow.
As remorseful and changed convicts again entwined with mankind,
we may or may not have just moved imprisonment into their mind.