The TC is a total treatment environment that provides a residential 24-hour-per-day learning experience in which a drug user's transformations in conduct, attitudes, values, and emotions are introduced, monitored, and mutually reinforced as part of the daily regime. The primary clinical staff of the TC are typically former substance abusers who were resocialized in TC's. The treatment perspective is that drug abuse is a disorder of the whole person. In the TC's view of recovery, the primary goal is to change the negative patterns of behavior, thinking, and feeling that predispose drug abuse. Recovery through the TC process depends on positive and negative pressures to change, and this occurs through a self-help process in which relationships of mutual responsibility to every resident in the program are built. After reviewing the distinctive advantages of TC's in correctional settings, a recent effort to establish a TC in a work-release setting (CREST Outreach Center) is described. In identifying some obstacles for TC's in prison, the rigid prison regime is noted, but the obstacle can be overcome with the acceptance of TC's by senior administrators. The authors advise that a more solid theoretical grounding is required for TC's than is now available. 4 notes and 40 references