In his previous appearance on Firing Line Mr. Colson had spoken in large part

about his own experience in prison; here he speaks more as a student of the problems with our prisons--principally the inhuman overcrowding and, even so, the staggering cost of building new prison space to keep up with the growing prison population. He has an alternative idea, which he states very effectively. Mr. Coughlin, meanwhile, is willing to stick up for his own institution, the legendary state prison "up the river" from New York City: "It's a little-known fact that of the eight thousand people who left this system in 1976, only 12 per cent have returned to prison within a five-year period for a new crime as distinguished from breaking parole on the old crime. Sixty-eight per cent are no problem; you never see them again after they leave."