THE METHODOLOGY USED IN THIS STUDY INVOLVED THE DISTRIBUTION OF COOPERSMITH'S 1961 SELF-ESTEEM INVENTORY TO RANDOMLY SELECTED VARSITY SPORTS PARTICIPANTS AND TO A MATCHED SAMPLING OF NONPARTICIPANTS, BASED ON SPECIFIC VARIABLES. THE TWO SAMPLES OF NEWLY-ADMITTED INMATES WERE SUBSEQUENTLY PLACED IN ONE OF FOUR GROUPS FOUND IN THE RANDOMIZED SOLOMON FOUR-GROUP DESIGN. ALL FOUR GROUPS WERE POSTTESTED. ALL DATA WERE ANALYZED BY COMPUTER TO DETERMINE FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS FOR FIVE VARIABLES. FINDINGS OF THIS SURVEY INDICATE THAT INMATES WHO PARTICIPATE IN THE PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU OF CORRECTION'S ORGANIZED VARSITY SPORTS PROGRAM TEND TO DISPLAY MATHEMATICALLY HIGHER SELF-ESTEEM INVENTORY SCORES AT A FASTER RATE THAN THE SPORTS PARTICIPANTS. THE CONCLUSION IS WARRANTED THAT PARTICIPATION IN ORGANIZED VARSITY SPORTS HAS NO IMPACT ON INMATES' SELF-ESTEEM, ONLY THAT THE ORGANIZED SPORTS PROGRAM ATTRACTS INMATES WHO ALREADY HAVE A SOUND LEVEL OF SELF-ESTEEM BEFORE THAT ATHLETIC INVOLVEMENT. TABULAR DATA ARE INCLUDED IN THE TEXT. FOOTNOTES, A BIBLIOGRAPHY, AND A SELF-ESTEEM INVENTORY FORM ARE APPENDED. BASED IN PART ON THE AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT.