The book opens with a scene on Koscuisko's ship where a Security detail manages to stop a group of saboteurs from destroying the ship. The consequences of this action are not seen until the very end of the book. Then we see Koscuisko releasing a prisoner's bonds -- one of the scenes which is supposed to make us aware of the fact that Koscuisko is a man of principles. Unauthorized torture is not permitted, and Koscuisko releases the prisoner because Charges have not been brought against this man. Yet he must do this secretly, which is a source of confusion for me. Matthews has set up an elaborate system of authorized torture with very strict rules, and yet when one of her Inquisitors finds an injustice, he cannot openly correct it. She reveals later that it is a matter of politics that prevents him from doing so, yet his inability to correct this injustice openly points to the flawed system. In her words:

"It was Koscuisko's responsibility to work through the holding areas, the ad hoc cells set aside to hold the Nurail identified as prisoners as well as deportees. There was a difference -- deportees were subject to privation and dehumanization, but they could not be put to torture merely because they were no longer to be permitted to die on their own land."

To summarize the rest of the book, Koscuisko discovers that the Warden of Domitt Prison has been using prisoners as slave labor and carrying out unauthorized torture. It takes him a while to find out all the details, and more prisoners die in the meantime. During his investigation we are subjected to descriptions of torture, abuse and a gruesome description of a man being burned alive in a furnace. When he finally puts all the pieces together, again we see the flawed system. Even though he has evidence, he is in danger of being replaced. His replacement would result in the invalidation of the evidence and Charges which he was going to file. But in the end, he reports the failure of Writ and the military comes in and cleans up the mess. At the end of the book, his bond-involuntaries are freed of their bondage, because of their actions which saved the ship in the very beginning of the book. And he buys the sex slave who was provided to him at the prison, sets her up with a house and asks her to pray for the bond-involuntary who died in the attack on him for the remainder of her Bond, the next twenty years. A contrived ending, to say the least.

There are many things I didn't like about this book but I'll hit a few of the major points.
One, Matthews' book is all about the Bench, the Writ of Torture and Inquisitors, but nowhere does she explain the whole system of "justice". There are references to different levels of Interrogation but no clear picture of what crimes warrant what levels. The use of speaksera (truth serum?) is mentioned but either its use is not allowed or not common. In any case, no rationale is supplied as to why physical torture is still in use in a society with advanced technology. Inexcusable in my mind, as this is part of the basis of this book.
Two, the book begins with weights and measures being measured in "eights". My first thought was that maybe this race had only 8 fingers, yet I could find no reference to this anywhere. Indeed, later in the book, this convention seemed to disappear (or maybe I stopped noticing).
Third, and this is a really minor point, there are references to drinks which gave me no indication what they were: shurla?, rhyti? Was he drinking an alcoholic drink, a coffee, a hot cocoa, a fruit drink? Just one more bit of confusion.

To sum up, I really can't recommend this book. The protagonist is not someone who you can really cheer for, and the plot is weak and confused. The whole premise is flawed, physical torture amidst the high technology of interstellar flight and a supposedly powerful individual, the Inquisitor, who has very little power to correct injustice. The threads of torture, slavery and concentration camps running through the story add to the unpleasantness of the book. I suggest that you give Susan R. Matthews' Prisoner of Conscience a pass and patronize one of the other new, promising authors out there.