A collection of original articles from a number of the world's leading authorities on imprisonment. The underlying theme of the book is that imprisonment is undergoing a significant change in a number of different countries and that there are important lessons which can be learned from the analysis of these changes.

Notes on the Contributors - Introduction; P.Francis & R.Matthews - The State of the Prisons ; S.Tumin - Prison in Crisis: The American Experience; F.Cullen, P.Van Voorhis & J.L.Sundt - We Never Promised Them a Rose Garden; M.Platek - Penal Austerity: The Doctrine of Less Eligibility; R.Sparks - Modernity, Imprisonment and Social Solidarity; W.Morrison - The Changing Functions of Imprisonment; C.Faugeron - Foreign Detainees in Greek Prison: A New Challenge to the Guardian of Human Rights; C.Spinellis, K.Angelopoulou & N.Koulouris - Ethnic Minorities in British Prisons: Some Research Implications; M.Fitzgerald & P.Marshall - Is There a Feminist Future for Womens Prisons?; M.Shaw - Womens Imprisonment in England and Wales at the End of the Twentieth Century: Legitimacy, Realities and Utopias; P.Carlen & C.Tchaicovsky - The Russian Prison System: Past Present and Future; A.S.Mikhlin & R.King - Prison Privatisation: An International Perspective; K.Beyens & S.Snacken - Index