The analysis focuses on the performance of five representative prisons for adult males, based on the accounts and evaluations by correctional personnel, inmates, and inmates' families. Results highlight declines that have occurred in inmate programs as the correctional systems devoted its increased resources to security and control. The analysis concludes that although many improvements have been made since the Woolf report, in several essential areas correctional performance still falls short of what was achieved in the early 1970's. It also notes that the new concern for austere regimes is jeopardizing some of the improvements and argues that some of the most important performance indicators are inadequate. Figures, tables, footnotes, index, and approximately 200 references (Publisher summary modified)