A literature review that focused mainly on adult correctional officers revealed that custody usually takes precedence over treatment as corrections tries to accomplish its dual function of custody and treatment. Background information on the structure of the San Francisco Juvenile Hall came from the author's employment there as a counselor during 1992-95. Additional information came from an anonymous questionnaire survey in 1995; responses came from 41 of the 75 full-time counselors. Results revealed that the institution schedules almost every moment during a typical day; the administration advised counselors to be most alert during open recreation times filled with television, card games, and letter writing. Thus, the facility was organized around control. Counselors were generally interested in working with youth, doing one-on-one counseling, and helping young people, and did not become counselors out of a simple desire to assert authority over captive youth. Counselors assigned more importance to rehabilitation than to custody goals. They aligned their desire to be therapeutic with their desire to perform well in the institution's rigid structure by redefining counseling to include lightswitch lecturing, by redefining punitive actions as helpful, and to some extent by regarding severe treatment as rehabilitative. Findings suggested that staff who work in juvenile hall will find a way to reconcile the dissonance involved in the contraction between their supposed function and the reality of the role they must fill. Tables, appended program materials, notes, and 19 references