The characteristics of the idealized preindustrial community with its relatively simple economic and social organization contrast with the complex and impersonal social order of the present. Both concepts of community possess strengths and weaknesses. Essential features of the 'stripped-down' community are face-to-faceness, immediacy, relatedness, commitment, shared assets, collaborative activity, self-governance, a microculture, solidarity, and egalitarianism. Therapeutic quasi-comunities, such as a communitized ward in a mental hospital and therapeutic groups in prison settings, are described as vehicles for linking institutional and patient or inmate needs. True therapeutic communities in prisons are created between committed prison staff members and responsive inmates. Sensitivity to inmates' needs is a necessary attribute for inducing postitive inmate involvement in a therapeutic community. Transition to full membership in the prison community occurs with incremental adjustment to new behavioral modes and participation in a more collectivized environment. The result may be either community membership in a supportive role or participation as an agent for community-building. Features of the prison setting which facilitate community buildings are the interdependence of a 'captive' clientele in a closed environment that is in search of 'meaning'. However, the characteristics of both closed and open systems must be orchestrated to insure internal and external effectiveness of therapeutic communities. The ideal of creating growth-promoting communities in prison should not overshadow the need to exploit all options (e.g., inmate and officer peer counseling) for enriching and humanizing the prison milieu. Fourteen footnotes containing bibliographic references are provided.