Includes bibliographical references and index.

In Europe, there are four main justifications for imprisonment / Council of Europe -- New Zealand prisons should be for rehabilitation, not retribution / Catholic Bishops of New Zealand -- In Mexico, violence is eroding Catholic attitudes toward punishment / Louis Nevaer -- British crime rates would decrease if imprisonment rates increased / Civitas -- Prison should be abolished / Peter Collins ... [et al.] -- Life imprisonment may violate human rights / Dirk van Zyl Smit -- In India, life sentences are assumed to be for life / Ipshita Sengupta -- In Singapore, juveniles can be detained indefinitely / Chong Chee Kin and Teh Joo Lin -- Honduran juveniles must not be sentenced to adult jails / Melissa Ewer -- Canadians support mandatory sentencing with some judicial discretion / Julian V. Roberts, Nicole Crutcher, and Paul Verbrugge -- In Britain and Germany, innovative sentences increase chances for rehabilitation / House of Commons Home Affairs Committee -- Humane treatment of prisoners is guaranteed by international law / J.L. Murdoch -- In France, prison conditions are deteriorating / Jean-Marc Rouillan -- Turkey's torture of prisoners may be changing / Mustafa Akyol -- Zimbabwe's prison conditions are horrible / Jonathan Clayton -- In South African prisons, rape is widespread / Just Detention International -- Prisons in Post-Soviet Russia incubate a plague / Merrill Goozner -- Australian prisons are ill-equipped to deal with women prisoners / Federation of Community Legal Centres, (Vic) Inc. -- Juveniles in the United States should not be sent to adult prisons / J. Steven Smith -- Iran jailed a prominent journalist for criticizing the government / Golnaz Esfandiari -- China may be harvesting the organs of political prisoners / David Matas -- In China, identifying political prisoners can facilitate their release / Andreas Lorenz -- In Cuba, there are fewer political prisoners but more arbitrary arrests / Dalia Acosta -- Political protestors in Papua should not be imprisoned / Human Rights Watch.