THIS FIRST PART OF A TWO-PART STUDY OF THE PROBLEM OF INFORMED CONSENT BY PRISONERS AND MENTAL HOSPITAL INMATES SUBJECTED TO MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS OR BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION TECHNIQUES REVIEWS THE HISTORY AND THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM. EXPERIMENTATION IN PRISONS AND MENTAL HOSPITALS BEGAN ON A LARGE SCALE DURING WORLD WAR II. BY 1960 MANY CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS HAD DEPARTMENTS SET UP ESPECIALLY TO WORK WITH DRUG COMPANIES ON EXPERIMENTAL PROBLEMS. A SERIES OF COURT CASES MAINTAINING THAT PRISONERS WERE BEING COERCED INTO SIGNING CONSENT FORMS IS REVIEWED, AND IT IS POINTED OUT THAT PRISON POPULATIONS DO NOT MAKE GOOD RESEARCH SUBJECTS FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS. DESPITE THE COURT CASES, CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS STILL HAVE A NUMBER OF RESEARCH CONTRACTS WITH DRUG COMPANIES. THE REVIEW ALSO EXAMINES BEHAVIOR EXPERIMENTATION. A SERIES OF TABLES PRESENTS STATE-BY-STATE SUMMARIES OF THE PARTICIPATION OF INMATES IN BOTH BIOMEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH. THE PREVALENCE AND LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOSURGERY, SHOCK TREATMENTS FOR BEHAVIOR CONTROL, POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT EXPERIMENTS, TOKEN ECONOMIES IN JUVENILE AND ADULT INSTITUTIONS (A FOOTNOTE LISTS THE STATES WHICH USE SUCH ECONOMIES), AND DRUGS ADMINISTERED FOR BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION ARE REVIEWED. THE USE OF APOMORPHINE, ANECTINE, PROLIXIN, AND TRANQUILIZERS IS EXAMINED, AND SEVERAL OF THE SCANDALS RESULTING FROM THE LACK OF INFORMED CONSENT ARE DISCUSSED. THE 169 FOOTNOTES CONTAIN CASE CITATIONS, REFERENCES, ADDITIONAL STATISTICAL DATA, AND RELATED DISCUSSIONS. ADDITIONAL REFERENCE CITATIONS, QUOTATIONS FROM EXPERTS, AND STATISTICAL DATA ARE CONTAINED THROUGHOUT THE TEXT. (GLR)