THE AIM OF THE STUDY WAS TO PROPOSE AND TEST A METHODOLOGY FOR ESTIMATING THE OVERALL EFFECT OF THE PRISON EXPERIENCE UPON ANY GIVEN INMATE'S HEALTH, MEDICAL RECORDS WERE CODED AND INTERVIEWS WERE CONDUCTED WITH REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLES OF ALL THREE POPULATIONS. ACUTE PHYSICAL MORBIDITY CONDITIONS, CHRONIC DIGESTIVE CONDITIONS, AND SELECTED INDICATORS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS WERE REPORTED BY PRISONERS AND THESE DATA WERE COMPARED WITH EXACTLY SIMILAR DATA FOR THE NON-INCARCERATED OFFENDERS WHO WERE STUDIED, CONTROLLING FOR A VARIETY OF DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES. SELECTED INDICATORS OF TREATMENT INCLUDED OUTPATIENT DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT, HOSPITAL EPISODES, SURGICAL OPERATIONS, AND CONVALESCENCE. IN ADDITION, AGE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY AND HOMICIDE RATES WERE CONSTRUCTED AND EVALUATED FOR PRISONERS, AS WERE TRENDS RELATING TO ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AND SELF-MUTILATION. THE BOOK SUBMITS THAT WHILE PRISONERS SEEM TO ENJOY A SOMEWHAT GREATER ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE THAN DO PAROLEES OR PROBATIONERS, PRISONERS SEEM TO SUFFER FROM A FAR GREATER NUMBER AND FREQUENCY OF MEDICAL COMPLAINTS. SUGGESTED IS THE LIKELIHOOD THAT IMPRISONMENT ITSELF MAY BE DANGEROUS TO THE HEALTH OF INMATES, APART FROM THE ADDITIONAL DANGERS INHERENT IN EXPOSURE OF INMATES TO PLANNED EVENTS SUCH AS MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS. A SUBJECT INDEX AND AN ELEVEN-PAGE BIBLIOGRAPHY ARE INCLUDED.