The author contends that the contemporary goal of corrections, humane incapacitation, is not a realistic one due to the level of violence in most correctional institutions. He notes that the culture of prison violence produces violent inmates and that this violence is then exported back into society since over 90 percent of inmates are released at some point in time. The author suggests that, due to the vicious cycle of interaction between social and state violence, efforts should be made to prevent violence through public policies designed to civilize society in general and the prison system in particular. The book considers violence in a violent world, the social organization of prison life, violence as social control in prisons, the crisis in prison administration, coercion in therapeutic communities, and social origins of violence. References, notes, and tables