Lirith Kai has no prison system as such. A Magistrate's tribunal and a Guard station will have a jail for confining suspected characters, and this is sometimes used for brief (less than a week) incarceration of petty offenders, but there is no institution to which a person may be committed for longer periods. Trial usually follows arrest within less than a week (often more quickly), and it is short and crisp. Lawyers may not be employed in the courtroom, the person or persons accused being required to plead their own case. Witnesses may be summoned by the defendant, the accuser if there is one, the investigator if this is not the judge, and the Magistrate himself. Perjury, as a violation of honor and thus an offense against Mantor, is a serious crime; a false accusation of perjury is also a serious crime.

Petty crime is punished by fines and/or by simple physical means such as flogging carried out immediately following the trial, usually in the plaza in front of the tribunal. Major crimes are punished by death in various forms; beheading is the simplest. A death sentence must be confirmed by the Lord Governor of the province; the notice and transcript is sent to him immediately after the trial, and the response seldom takes more than a week or ten days unless there is a question raised concerning the case. Intermediate crimes are punished by bound servitude for periods ranging between a month and five years. In some cases this means performing such jobs as a servant might; in the case of violent crimes, it usually involves hard labor, such as work on the roads and canals that tie the Empire together. Since not only the law but the prisoner's own honor is held to bind him or her to the service, escape is a serious crime in its own right and subject to serious punishment.