What are prison conditions like in America today? Do prisons protect society and rehabilitate prisoners? Should punishment be part of a prison sentence and does the fear of punishment deter crime? These and other issues are explored in this illustrated book of readings and student exercises exphasizing critical thinking skills. Selections are from: 1) the Federal Bureau of Prison's, Thirty Years of Progress; 2) No Man is an Island by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger; 3) Sexual Assaults in the Philadelphia Prison System and Sheriff's Vans by Alan J. Davis; 4) the Furtune Society's How to Be Best; 5) Too Good for Arkansas: One Year of Prison Reform by Tom Murton; 6) the Federal Bureau of Prison's, 1969 Annual Report; 7) Crime in America by Ramsey Clark; 8) Lay-Keepers Have Rights, Too: Rapist Gets 48 (hours a week) in Jail by Melvin Munn; 9) The Problem of Prisons by David F. Greenberg; 10) The Crime of Punishment by Karl Menninger, M.D.; 11) Capital Punishment: Has it Become Cruel and Unusual by Arnold W. Green, and, 12) Law and the Prosecution of Crime by Bettina Bien. Appended are the locations of institutions within the Federal Bureau of Prisons, sources of information on state institutions, and books containing critical commentary on prisons and criminal justice. Related documents are: SO 001 466, SO 001 468, and SO 001 469. (Author/DJB)