Each topic is systematically examined from three different perspectives - academic, practitioner, and prisoner - for a total of thirty-six readings. Students compare each perspective and determine how they diverge or how they are similar. 

The twelve topic areas are:

• Institutional Crowding
• Growth of Women Prisoners in Corrections
• Elements of Correctional Rehabilitation and Treatment
• HIV/AIDS in Corrections
• Prison Gangs
• Prison Violence
• Security Housing Units: The Supermax Prison
• Women Guarding Men
• Correctional Privatization
• Juveniles in Adult Corrections
• Capital Punishment: The Ultimate Penalty
• Release from Prison: Parole

The book's features include:

• Topic Introductions: Each introduction delves into common assumptions about the topic presented, including a discussion of where the assumptions originated and evidence dispelling any erroneous assumptions.
• Recommended Readings and Internet Links: Each topic introduction contains a short list of recommended readings and Internet links/websites.
• Focus Questions: To aid students in determining what main points they should be looking for, focus questions are presented at the beginning of each article.

Discussion of the Three Perspectives: A commentary section follows the three perspectives at the end of each topic area.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I: Effects of Sentencing Changes

Chapter 1: Institutional Crowding

Academic Perspective: Challenging Beliefs About Prison Crowding
Gerald G. Gaes
Gaes suggests that prison crowding is rarely the sole cause of serious problems related to prisoner health, violence, recidivism, and prison riots.

Practitioner Perspective: A National Study of Correctional Administrator's Views on Prison Crowding
Michael S. Vaughn
Vaughn identifies the factors that have contributed to prison crowding and how institutional overpopulation can be reduced.

Prisoner Perspective: Report From an Overcrowded Maze
Dannie M. Martin & Peter Y. Sussman
The authors link crowding with increased institutional stress, which encourages increased violence, secretiveness, clique mentality, and deceit.

Chapter 2: Growth of Women Prisoners

Academic Perspective: Examining Trends in Female Incarceration
Meda Chesney-Lind
Chesney-Lind considers the causes for a large increase in female prisoners.

Practitioner Perspective: A Prison Superintendent's Perspective on Women in Prison
Elaine Lord
Lord provides details on issues women face during incarceration, and how the criminal justice system is responding differently to women offenders.

Ex-Prisoner Perspective:  The Effect of the War on Drugs on Women Prisoners
Susan Dearing
Dearing shares perspectives from women prisoners and former prisoners, to explain how changes in laws have affected growth of women in prison.

Part II: Treatment of Offenders

Chapter 3: Elements of Correctional Rehabilitation

Academic Perspective: The Principles of Effective Intervention With Offenders
Paul Gendreau
Gendreau examines how far researchers have come since the Martinson study in determining what works in the treatment of prisoners.

Practitioner Perspective: Essential Elements of the Effective Therapeutic Community in the Correctional Institution: A Director's Perspective
Steven F. Singer
Singer provides us with a deeper understanding of "Doin' Time Getting' Straight," a 9-to-12-month prison-based therapeutic community.

Prisoner Perspective: Through the Narrow Gate
Calbraith MacLeod
MacLeod discusses the concept of free will by providing details about his past destructive behavior that led to his current prison sentence.

Chapter 4: Medical Treatment: HIV/AIDS in Corrections

Academic Perspective: HIV/AIDS and the Correctional System
Douglas S. Lipton
Lipton reviews the concerns about the increasing prevalence and transmission rates of HIV/AIDS within correctional settings.

Practitioner Perspective:  Women Prisoners With HIV: A Letter From a Prison Doctor
Anne S. De Groot
DeGroot shares her experiences working with women prisoners in Massachusetts who are infected with HIV.

Prisoner Perspective:  Till Death do us Part: The Deadly Game of AIDS in Prison
Antonio A. Gilbreath & Joshua D.M. Rogers
The authors describe the devastating effects of playing "The Game." 

Part III: Prison Security Issues

Chapter 5: Prison Gangs

Academic Perspective: Changes in Prison Culture: Prison Gangs and the Case of the 'Pepsi Generation'
Geoffrey Hunt, Stephanie Riegel, Tomas Morales, & Dan Waldorf
Using in-depth interviews of ex-prisoners in California, this selection measures changes in prison life due to the infiltration of prison gangs.

Practitioner Perspective: The Meaning of Prison Gang Tattoos
Michael P. Phelan & Scott A. Hunt
Phelan and Hunt examine the meaning of tattoos belonging to the Nuestra Familia, a Latino prison gang with roots in California. 

Prisoner Perspective: Prison Gangs: Racial Separatism as a Form of Social Control
Victor Hassine
Hassine demonstrates how the existence of prison gangs and racial separatism can actually be beneficial to prison administrators.

Chapter 6: Prison Violence

Academic Perspective: The Reproduction of Violence in U.S. Prisons
Michael Welch
Welch introduces various causes and levels of prison violence throughout history.

Practitioner Perspective: Violence and Incarceration: A Personal Observation
JoAnne Page
Page concludes that correctional institutions breed anger, violence, and destructiveness that do not help prisoners to deal with their problems. 

Prisoner Perspective: Realities of Fear
Mike Rolland
Rolland provides us with a first-hand account of what the New Mexico prison riot was like from his perspective. 

Chapter 7: Security Housing Units: Supermax Prisons

Academic Perspective: Infamous Punishment: The Psychological Consequences of Isolation
Craig Haney
Haney argues that long periods of social deprivation in security housing units are psychologically harmful.

Practitioner Perspective: Attitudes of Prison Wardens Toward Administrative Segregation and Supermax Prisons
Terry L. Wells, W. Wesley Johnson & Rodney J. Henningsen
The authors use responses from a national survey of state prison wardens to report what wardens think about supermax cells.

Prisoner Perspective: It's a Form of Warfare: A Description of Pelican Bay State Prison
John H. Morris
Morris describes what doing time is like inside Pelican Bay prison.

Chapter 8: Women Guarding Men

Academic Perspective: Women Corrections Officers in Men's Prisons: Acceptance and Perceived Job Performance
Richard Lawrence & Sue Mahan
Lawrence and Mahan compare officer acceptance, safety, and perceived job performance of women correctional officers working in men's prisons. 

Practitioner Perspective: Working in a Male-Dominated World: Aggression and Women Correctional Officers
Denise L. Jenne & Robert C. Kersting
Jenne and Kersting discuss the strategies women correctional officers utilize when they respond to volatile situations involving male prisoners.

Ex-Prisoner Perspective: Lady Hacks and Gentlemen Convicts
Stephen C. Richards, Charles M. Terry, & Daniel S. Murphy
The authors express their view of female correctional officers and other female staff in the "hyper-masculine environment" of the prison.

Part IV: Special Issues Facing Corrections

Chapter 9: Correctional Privatization

Academic Perspective: Issues Concerning Private Prisons
David Shichor
Shichor reviews the history of privatization, concluding that increases in incarceration will likely encourage the expansion of private prisons. 

Practitioner Perspective: A Comparison of Job Satisfaction Among Private and Public Prison Employees
Emmitt L. Sparkman, Kevin I. Minor, & James B. Wells
Sparkman, Minor, and Wells measure job satisfaction of security and non-security staff employed at public, state-run facilities and private prisons.

Ex-Prisoner Perspective: Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other: Private Prisons and the Conditions of Confinement Debate
Alan C. Mobley
Mobley considers the unintended consequences of confinement.

Chapter 10: Juveniles in Adult Corrections

Academic Perspective: The Risks Juveniles Face in Adult Prisons
Jason Ziedenberg & Vincent Schiraldi
Ziedenberg and Schiraldi argue that prison is a dangerous place for juveniles due to the threat of violence through rape, assault, and suicide.

Practitioner Perspective: Juveniles in Adult Prisons: Problems and Prospects
Francis P. Reddington & Allen D. Sapp
Reddington and Sapp survey correctional administrators on their concerns regarding the placement of youth into adult correctional facilities.

Prisoner Perspective: Maximum-Security Offenders' Attitudes Toward Placing Juveniles in Adult Prisons
Martha L. Henderson
Henderson found that adult prisoners generally did not support placing juvenile offenders in adult prisons. 

Chapter 11: On Death Row

Academic Perspective: Death Work: A Modern Execution Team
Robert Johnson
Johnson describes the responsibilities and bonds of solidarity of deathwatch team members, an elite group of correctional officers.

Practitioner Perspective: Managing Death Row: A Tough Assignment
Morris L. Thigpen
Thigpen explains his personal thoughts as a witness to eight executions during his position as commissioner in Alabama.

Prisoner Perspective: Walker's Requiem
Anthony Ross
Ross provides his perspective on what a prisoner might typically experience just before he is put to death by the gas chamber.

Part V: Getting Out

Chapter 12: Release From Prison: Parole

Academic Perspective: The Current State of Parole in America
Norman Holt 
Holt considers how parole has changed over the years with the decrease of discretionary release and the change to determinate sentencing.

Practitioner Perspective: Perspectives on Parole: The Board Members' Viewpoint
Ronald Burns, Patrick Kinkade, Matthew C. Leone, & Scott Phillips
The authors review parole board members' perceptions about serious problems parole boards face.

Prisoner Perspective: Getting Out: A Long and Frightening Road Home
Kathryn Watterson
Watterson examines the hurdles women prisoners face while on parole.