Editors’ note: This is part of the Op-Eds From the Future series, in which science fiction authors, futurists, philosophers and scientists write Op-Eds that they imagine we might read five, 10, 50 or even 200 years from now. The challenges they predict are imaginary — for now — but their arguments illuminate the urgent questions of today and prepare us for tomorrow. The Opinion piece below is a work of fiction.

Yesterday, the mass shooter responsible for the deaths of 23 people at a Manhattan nightclub two years ago was sentenced to 50 years in prison for each of the victims, along with additional weapons and felony charges, bringing his total sentence to 2045 years. He will clearly not be able to serve it, at least not in the traditional sense. And yet he’s not the first to receive such a sentence: In 2003, the serial killer Gary Ridgway was sentenced to 49 life sentences plus 480 years; in 2015, James Holmes, the “Dark Knight” shooter, was sentenced to 12 consecutive life sentences plus 3,318 years without parole; and in 2017, Ronald C. Yarber, a foster parent found guilty of sexual assault of a child, was sentenced to 1,652 years.

It’s time that we stop allowing our justice system to hand out sentences that we know a person cannot possibly serve. Imagine spending two thousand years in solitary confinement. That’s what we’re currently sentencing people to — we just don’t expect the prisoner to be alive to serve it. It has been argued that we should sentence someone for each crime committed (hence the 50-year sentences for every murder) to ensure that all victims’ families receive justice. I agree. The victims and their families deserve to see justice carried out. But these meaninglessly long sentences aren’t justice — they’re a mockery of it.

Yes, those who commit such abhorrent crimes deserve to be punished. And yes, they deserve to serve the entire sentences that they’re given. Otherwise, our criminal justice system would either be giving perpetrators prison terms that no one intends them to serve or sentences that could only be completed if they lived for thousands of years — neither of which is a rational pursuit of justice. We know that a person cannot live for dozens or hundreds of lifetimes, but what if they could perceive themselves to have lived that long? What if they could have the perception that thousands of years have passed?