Jones (1981) conceptualizes performance in a way that seems most useful in identifying the information that should be available when assessing corrections performance. Attention is drawn to the following issues: (1) what corrections agencies produce, (2) the benefits, (3) who benefits, (4) who pays, (5) the cost effectiveness of corrections agencies, and (6) how efficiently corrections agencies operate. This study focuses on the measurement and interpretation of a corrections agency's efficiency. Much of the effort of performance-measurement research during the past 20 years has focused on how to combine multiple measures into a single performance measure. Three such approaches are (1) multiattribute decision theory, which relies on weights for each attribute; (2) data envelopment analysis, which synthesizes from a set of efficient agencies a piece-wise linear extremal production function; and (3) cost and production functions, which use economic techniques to develop a single overall measure of effectiveness. Data envelopment analysis and production and cost function should be applied only to agencies having well-defined processes. These two types of analyses generally provide estimates of only the efficiency aspects of agency performance, while multiattribute decision theory allows the consideration of other aspects of agency performance, such as equity. Tabular and graphic data, 14 notes, and 51 references are provided.