For the last several decades, NCCD has been an advocate of corrections reform for both adults and juveniles and has favored a radical reduction in the number of offenders incarcerated. Despite its radical positions on many corrections issues, the NCCD remains the most 'respectable' of the Nation's prison reform groups, partly because of the respect that Rector, who has been chief executive since 1959, is accorded among corrections officials. In his replies to interview questions, Rector describes his first contact with the criminal justice system when he was a boy in Nevada, where he was arrested for running away from home, as well as his early involvement in street gangs and church activities. He also describes his prewar work with Mexican-American gangs in Los Angeles, where he served as a trainee deputy and a probation officer before becoming a juvenile camp director. After the war, Rector served with the San Francisco office of the NCCD and with an eastern branch before becoming the organization's director. Rector explains his views on the present law-and-order mentality in the United States; determinate sentencing; and relationships with the Nixon, Carter, and Reagan administrations. Rector concludes by explaining that his faith in mankind and in the improvement of mankind have kept him active in correctional reform. Photographs are included.