There is hate, fear, anger, and resentment within the inmate population, not to mention the staff. These emotions are undermined by a healthy sense of humor. Humor can be a policy tool that can defuse tense situations and modify negative attitudes. Since the research on the effects of laughter and humorous attitudes are so positive for humans' physical and psychological well-being, corrections administrators should use humor as a structured, institutional policy tool. The true professional on the jail staff is the one who can combine science and art, seriousness and humor, spontaneity and rules in a harmonious blend that reflects the value of each. The art part of this blend embraces humor, because it serves a holistic openness to the human condition. Humor opens up the mind and the feelings to creative thinking, and seriousness tends to restrict. Hansot (1979) argues that humor has a number of important functions in organizations. It integrates, expresses skepticism, contributes to flexibility and adaptiveness, and indicates status. Most important, humor can illuminate and change frames of reference, so as to show that any single definition of a situation is arbitrary. 8 references