This profile of the evolution of Federal imprisonment reflects ways in which corrections history has been affected by other trends in the political and cultural life of the Nation. The book divides the 200-year evolution of the Federal penal system into three phases. During the first phase, from 1776 through the end of the 19th century, no Federal prisons existed in the United States. Federal prisoners were boarded in State or local facilities. In the second phase, which began with the passage of the Three Prison Act by Congress in 1891, Federal facilities were constructed at Leavenworth and Atlanta. The old territorial prison at McNeil Island in Washington State became the third prison. In 1930 the Federal Bureau of Prisons was created, marking the third phase of the prison system's evolution. The Bureau, in its first 60 years, introduced numerous correctional innovations, thereby building an effective, centrally controlled prison system with progressive standards. The essential characteristics of this mature system are detailed. Chapter notes and a subject index (Publisher abstract modified)