The authors contend that, in contrast to earlier periods, when inmates comprised a small, autonomous, and fairly harmonious community, correctional managers today segregate prisoners, encourage informing, and tolerate overcrowding. The result is that inmates fail to progress during their term of incarceration toward the ultimate goal of living as a well-equipped member of society. As prisoners stagnate within a prison environment that can be accurately described as a warehouse, their sense of alienation grows, and many take on the an extremist outlaw identity, becoming unable to cope in the outside world upon their release.