Beverly Fletcher takes an inside out look at Organization Transformation (OT). OT is a new area of theory and practice which effectively helps organizations make large-scale changes in purpose, structure, culture, and strategy. The past decade has seen rapidly changing environmental conditions which have made previously successful organizational practices ineffective. Economic, cultural, social, and political trends have combined to create a critical need for theories and practices that aid transformative changes in organizations. Fletcher's book explores this topic by studying fourteen selected theorists and practitioners of Organization Transformation. This study has implications not only for organizational behaviorists but for business firms; government agencies; and community, human services, and educational organizations who need assistance with their own transformations.

Fletcher has gathered extensive data through in-depth interviewing. She explores this new field by studying the motives and philosophical assumptions of current OT theorists and practitioners. What do they have in common that makes them an identifiable group? On what points do they differ? What do they consider as important contributions of OT? What are their predictions of OT's future impact on organizations? Fletcher focuses on her participants' organizational concepts, beliefs, values, and practices to create a fascinating profile of great use to any agency or organization.

Many social scientists have ignored the diversity of the women's prison population and the differential treatment to which women of various backgrounds have been subjected. These omissions have affected the type of information available on women in the criminal justice system as it relates exclusively to gender. The goal of this work is to document women's unique and gender-biased experience as participants and victims of the criminal justice system.

Topics include women on death row, race and gender issues, probation and parole, female juvenile delinquents, prostitution, health and mental health issues of women in prison, social justice concerns, and educational programs. The references included highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the issues as they cross such fields as law, criminal justice, social work, and psychology, and reveal the intensity of racism and sexism often ignored by the system, but confronted by the female population in the criminal justice system.

From the Foreword by George Henderson: Perhaps nothing captures the debilitating effects of sexism more vividly than [this] in-depth study of women incarcerated in our correctional institutions. Beneath the statistics lie a human tragedy of a magnitude most people cannot fully comprehend. A disproportionate number of women are wasting away in non-rehabilitative institutions that perpetuate rather than correct criminal behaviors. The editors and contributors to this book capture cogent slices of life of some of the role players in the prison drama. And they do so with the sensitive touch of social surgeons who carefully lift and examine one layer of human behavior and then another. But they do not stop there. They also examine some of the attitudes, beliefs, and values of incarcerated women and their keepers (prison staff). The total work is an insightful glimpse of a neglected subculture. One of the unique features of the book is the diversity of the contributors in terms of disciplines such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, social work, communication, and organization and management. Another feature that makes this work different is the multi-ethnic and cross-cultural diversity of the contributors. Finally, there are no other studies that look at women offenders holistically.