The purpose of this paper is to identify primarily educational issues which are basic to the practitioner or researcher in the area of correctional education. Three categories of issues are examined. Management issues are one category and includes those which involve administrative and supervisory duties. Building a platform (rationale, philosophy, or policy) is essential to developing a correctional education curriculum. Creating more difficulty in management than any other aspect are faulty communications. There are three basic types of communications: formal, functional, and non-formal. The complexity of the network and difference in language are the focus of this issue. The final management issue is goal-setting and evaluating the desirability of a goal as it relates to individual perceptions and roles. A second category is that of contextual issues, which includes perception of the educational program and the nature of learners and instructors. The final category of issues encompasses the basics in prison education, including fostering human development, establishing opportunities and necessities for responsibility, the self-concept, meaning and purpose to correctional education, and establishing a cultural alternative. (A bibliography is appended.) (FP)