Administrative relations in the Dutch prison system have been through a metamorphosis since the end of World War II. In 1951 the prison system was highly centralized. Life within prison was totally regulated by the Justice Department. In the first 20 years after World War II, prison administrations had little administrative discretion. It was not until the late 1960's that prison administrations were allowed a degree of administrative freedom. Influenced by societal developments, in particular democratization and minority emancipation, inmates started to voice their protest against the disciplined regimes and demanded a meaningful operationalization of the rehabilitation aim expressed in article 26. The prison administrations of the 1990's have far more autonomy than their predecessors in the 1950's. In the new Prison Act, currently under judicial review, the altered relation between departmental policy makers and prison administrations is codified into law. The new law is partially meant to formalize the current administrative system and partially written to legalize certain policy options. The most important changes in the new Prison Act are regulation of complaint procedures for inmates, further delegation of authority to the warden, introduction of new criteria for differentiation, and introduction of intrainstitutional differentiation. Some wardens, however, believe the new policy plan is an effort to reinstate a form of process control over prisons. The evidence is sketchy. Wardens are divided over the necessity to make the regimes tighter, but they are in agreement that if regimes should be altered, the wardens themselves are capable of performing the job. 1 footnotes and 41 references