Drugs and violence are rife in our filthy, overcrowded prisons, and women and underage prisoners are treated badly by staff and other prisoners alike. The role of the criminal justice system in our society is to protect the public, and the prison's role in this system is to prevent the next crime, or the next victim, by helping prisoners to lead useful and law-abiding lives both in their time in prison and afterwards. Statistics show they are failing, and this book discusses how and why.