Dan Simmons' "The Fall of Hyperion" describes a setting where brains of suspects of high crimes are put into a jar for interrogation. The death sentence in that

Dan Simmons' "The Fall of Hyperion" describes a setting where brains of suspects of high crimes are put into a jar for interrogation. The death sentence in that setting was abolished, but the alternatives were not exactly pretty. One of them was be disposal of the body and placement of the brain in storage indefinitely, while cutting off any means of communication.