Is rehabilitation dead in American corrections? This socio-political analysis of the fifty-year history of Patuxent Institution, a treatment-oriented maximum security prison in Maryland, studies the organizational challenges faced by this unique American prison, and the social and political forces that work to ensure its survival.
«Coldren provides a provocative profile and critical analysis of research based clinical treatment as the mandated marrow of inmate program services at the Patuxent Institution. These research-based programs, surviving through legislative fiat, now provide rare documentation of five decades of the evolving relationship between custody and program staff, the dynamics of juvenile and adult treatment modalities, legislative politics, racial politics, and the ever-compelling community need for services to mentally ill (violent) offenders. This is an essential and valued text for university and law school libraries.» (Jess Maghan, Professor and Director, Forum for Comparative Correction, Chester, CT)