"Three thousand men and women are incarcerated in New Zealand prisons. Large sums are spent in looking after them, yet three out of every four will reoffend after release. Imprisonment has failed dramatically as a form of punishment and has in fact compounded the evil it seeks to overcome. The logic of perpetuating such a system, both from a human and an economic point of view, forms the central theme of this book.The author, who worked for many years in Mt Eden Prison as a welfare officer and then as New Zealand's first prison psychologist, is well qualified to write authoritatively on the subject. He has studied many hundreds of criminal case histories, from which he has drawn liberally to illustrate his views and back up his claims. As a result he not only paints a very frank and vivid picture of prison life in Mt Eden, but also offers a perceptive and intelligent examination of a sytem which, except for a small minority of criminal psychopaths, should finally be rejected out of hand." -- back cover.

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