The author says that educational programs in prisons are often justified by claims that education reduces recidivism. He argues that an overemphasis on the link between education and the reduction of recidivism inhibits good educational practice in prisons. In addition, the author criticizes some prison educators who focus on the medical or personality problems of inmates as central to the educational process. He also takes issue with those educators who emphasize training prisoners to meet certain economic demands. The author notes that the prison education theory espousing a cognitive moral development justification provides a way to give education a central role in prison life. However, that philosophy shortchanges technical and vocational programs. Praising the prison education programs developed by the Correctional Service of Canada, the author observes that the Canadian programs contain a clear ethical dimension, a high level, technical-vocational program, and a university program made up of arts and social science courses. Prisoners found the Canadian program difficult but were stimulated by meeting its challenges. The author argues that prison educators should not adopt a single learning theory as central to their work. Instead, they should focus on how adults learn, and they should set standards of difficulty appropriate to the prisoners' levels of achievement. 7 references.