Project Gutenberg's Take the Reason Prisoner, by John Joseph McGuire

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Take the Reason Prisoner

Author: John Joseph McGuire

Illustrator: George Schelling

Release Date: January 15, 2010 [EBook #30972]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TAKE THE REASON PRISONER ***

Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction November 1963.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
on this publication was renewed.

TAKE THE REASON PRISONER

No process is perfect ...
but some men always feel unalterably convinced
that their system is the Be all and End all. Psychology now,
should make prisons absolutely escape-proof,
and cure all aberrations....

JOHN J. McGUIRE

Illustrated by George Schelling

* * * * *

Major general (Ret.) James J. Bennington had both professional
admiration and personal distaste for the way the politicians
maneuvered him.

The party celebrating his arrival as the new warden of Duncannon
Processing Prison had begun to mellow. As in any group of men with a
common interest, the conversation and jokes centered on that interest. The
representatives and senators of the six states which sent criminals to
Duncannon, holding glasses more suited to Martini-drinking elephants than
human beings, naturally turned their attention to the vagaries in the
business of being and remaining elected.

Senator Giles from Pennsylvania and Representative Culpepper of
Connecticut accomplished the maneuver. Together they smoothly cut the
general out of the group comparing the present tax structure to rape,
past the group lamenting the heavy penalties in the latest
conflict-of-interest law, into a comparatively quiet corner.

"Well general, no need to tell you that we are all as happy to have
you here as Dr.