About this Book

This book examines the basic dimensions of adjustment to prison life and offers a person-centered vision of prison reform. The book argues that prisoners serve hard time, as they are meant to, but typically learn little of value during their time behind bars. They adapt to prison in immature and often destructive ways, and as a result, they leave prison no better, and sometimes considerably worse, than they went in. But mature coping is possible in prison, can be facilitated by staff and programs, and can result in the correction or rehabilitation of offenders. Part 1 reviews the history of prisons. Part 2 examines patterns of adjustment in detail, with an emphasis on first-person accounts. Basic features of adjustment - those shared by men and women - are noted and examined, and the notion of mature coping is developed. Part 3 reviews the latest developments in prison management and program, and closes with a reform proposal in which encouragement of mature coping adaptations, together with help navigating the transition to the free world, are primary objectives of correctional work.