The study brings into focus a person who is intelligent, complex, highly motivated and resourceful. The Mexican inmates' social and cultural adaptation to the prison is examined in terms of highlighting the conflict points between the rurally oriented inmate and a mechanistic institution that tends to reduce the individuals to numbers. Findings led to the conclusion that it would be more productive to train institutional staff to recognize the life essence of the Mexican migrant. Institutions need to capitalize on those elements of character (intelligence, motivation, and resourcefulness) to help the migrant penetrate the Mexican vocational mainstream. (Author abstract)