Prisons occupy a central position in the criminal justice system of all the developed nations. State controlled, and now increasingly privately run though state regulated, prisons are actually and symbolically the organs of state power which are used to punish deviant members of society. Much is known about prisons, their administration, their effectiveness and their problems. Particularly since the crisis in British prisons began to become apparent during the late 1980s prisons haave become the focus of much attention from researchers, policy makers and government. More is known now than at any time in the past about how prisons work and how prisoners view their experiences of incarceration. However little attention has been given to comparing and contrasting prison systems in different countries. This collection does just that, bringing together leading prison scholars from Italy, Australia, the US, and the UK to produce a set of essays which offer a broad view of recent developments in imprisonment theory and practice. The subject of privately run prisons feature in two of the essays while the crisis in prisons feature in two of the essays while the crisis in prisons in several countries is viewed critically in two others. Other important topics examined are Russian prisons after Perestroika, human rights and prisons in Europe, as well as women in prisons and racial disproportion in US prisons. This is a high-quality collection of up-to-date essays which will be required reading for anyone interested in prisons and the process of criminal justice. Contributors: Richard Sparks, Douglas C. McDonald, Massimo Pavarini, Roy D. King, Franklin E. Zimring, Gordon Hawkins, Michael Tonry, Ken Pease, Pat Carlen, Rod Morgan, Malcolm Evans, Mike Maguire