[_emacsomancer_]

> It just reminds me that we're still in the Dark Ages, underneath our veneer of "civilization".

Though it's only more recently that keeping people in prison for significant lengths of time has been commonplace, or thought of as a way of punishing/rehabilitating.

Present day is darker in some ways than the so-called Dark Ages.

[mercer]

Could you tell us more about that? I'm very curious to know what happened other than long-term imprisonment. Banishment? Death? The stocks?

[_emacsomancer_]

Yes, all of those. As well as fines.