J E Thomas is Robert Peers Professor Emeritus of Adult Education at the University of Nottingham. He has over 50 years' experience working with prisoners including working in Zambia, as Governor in HM Prison Service and a consultant in the UK and Australia.

• Introduction; 1. On being locked up; 2. Settling down; 3. A community?; 4. Dealing with the staff; 5. Prisoners in authority; 6. The world of communication; 7. The studied organisation of cruelty; 8. Cruel and unusual punishment; 9. Sex and the captive; 10. Political prisoners; 11. On freedom; Bibliography

This book uses the words of prisoners of all varieties - criminal, political, wartime - to give a moving flavour of life in confinement. It should be read by all those with an interest in penology, by those responsible for administering a penal system, and by those of us in whose name imprisonment is inflicted on others.