The primary function of the Office of the Correctional Investigator is to investigate and bring resolution to individual offender complaints. This involves providing independent, informed, and objective opinions on the fairness of action taken so as to counterbalance the relative strength of public institutions against the individual. In addition to responding to individual complaints, the Office meets regularly with inmate committees and other offender organizations and makes announced visits biannually at each institution, during which the investigator will meet with any inmate or group of inmates, upon request. Over the course of the reporting year, the Office received 5,282 complaints. The investigative staff spent 364 days in Federal penitentiaries and conducted more than 2,800 interviews with inmates and half as many interviews with institutional and regional staff. The report concludes that the Office of the Correctional Investigator cannot discharge its responsibilities without a consistent level of responsiveness on the part of the Correctional Service. The Service's responses to offender concerns, raised by the Correctional Investigator's office, continue to be excessively delayed, overly defensive, and absent of commitment to specific corrective action. Tables, appendixes, case summaries