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An historical overview of the plea bargaining process through the past few centuries is presented. The advantages and disadvantages of the use of the legal mechanism are given. A research project conducted in Pima County, Arizona, covering 500 convicted persons who had been involved in plea bargaining is described, and the findings indicate that the majority of individuals included in the study willingly accepted the concept and felt that the practice should not be discontinued. A recommendation for modification of the misuse of the process is that cases should be reviewed for plea bargaining by an independent agency apart from the court and prosecutor. This would insure that the individual was aware that he was abrogating his rights of appeal, thereby eliminating any further investigation of his case.

This study attempts to determine whether the act of volunteering by an inmate for a constructive prison program was a discriminative factor in his postinstitutional behavior. Two paradoxical assumptions underlying volunteering are described:(1) that the volunteer is more highly motivated to change than the nonvolunteer; (2) that the volunteer in a correctional setting is not more highly motivated to change. A scale was developed to measure the postrelease success of parolees and expiration-ofsentence releasees. Results support the hypothesis that volunteers tend to identify with a noncriminal reference group in the beginning and terminal phases of incarceration. During the middle phase of imprisonment, the significant inverse relationship between volunteering and postrelease success suggests these volunteers identify with the values of a criminogenic reference group. HE ADEQUACY of many modern Tideas relating to prison construction, prison administration, and institutional and noninstitutional treatment is still open to question.' The effects of many penal policies on the success of the individual offender after release have never been empirical--ly tested.If an inmate in a correctional institution volunteers for a groupdiscussion program, is he identifying with a reference group? This study explores two paradoxical assumptions _ made by different disciplines concern-ing the act of volunteering to determine whether at different stages of incarceration it is a discriminating factor in the individual's postinstitutional adjustment. OPPOSING CONCEPTSThe act of volunteering has been variously interpreted by different dis-ciplines. The social-work philosophy underlying volunteering can be traced to the Judaic-Christian ethic holding the individual responsible for participating in changes in his environment : although he has the ability to change, he must give some indication of wanting help before he can accept support in working through his problems. According to psychiatric and psychoanalytic thought, ' 1 Alfred C. Schnur, "The State of Corrections and the State

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