Analyses focus on shifts in offender treatment, the philosophical justifications for these developments, inmate rights, and the ontologies underlying all changes. The focus of the ontologies pertains to the issues of determinism, freedom and responsibility, and the nature of the offender. These concepts are at the core of the debates on the meaning of punishment. Punishment might mean rehabilitation or retribution. Each rationale includes an ontology or fundamental description of the person being punished, including culpability. The issue of unfair punishments is based in the unequal participation of citizens in the decisions of justice and law. Laws and their attached punishments tend to favor those able to influence the formation of statutes. Most often such persons are the economically and politically powerful. 12 references.