Ch. 1. Introduction -- Pt. 1. Background issues. Ch. 2. Justifications and purposes of imprisonment. Ch. 3. Prisons since the 1970s. Ch. 4. Prisons - protecting the public? Ch. 5. International comparisons. Ch. 6. Sentencing and the courts -- Pt. 2. Policy in the 1980s and 1990s. Ch. 7. Early release and structured sentencing; the Criminal Justice Act 1982. Ch. 8. Just deserts; the Criminal Justice Act 1991. Ch. 9. The watershed. Ch. 10. 'Prison works' -- Pt. 3. Current policy and prospects for the future. Ch. 11. A new kind of crisis