The starting point of this discussion is a focus on prisoner status, which provides an effective entry to significant penological issues. The author maintains that the prison crisis in New South Wales stems from fundamental conflicts about prison status; traditional analyses have emphasized the relative merits of the standard purposes of imprisonment including expiation, rehabilitation, incapacitation, and deterrence. The various topics of prison management which are publicly debated--escapes, remissions, level of prisoner comforts, and prisoners' rights--are indicative of different perceptions of prisoners and their status. And each model provides the framework for a different regime of prisoner management. Separate chapters in this book explore in detail the prisoner profile, architectural forms in New South Wales prisons, the impact of different political forces on prison operations, the prison bureaucracy, and the influence of the media on the outcome of prison issues.