Education within prisons can be viewed as a form of rehabilitation to enable inmates to return to society. However, many prisoners lack fundamental education and have negative attitudes toward learning. This leads to problems in the areas of teaching prisoners and justifying educational programs within prison institutions. Correctional education programs can be justified by the fact that they provide a tie with the outside world that is noncriminal and that they help the prisoner find a job when he or she is released. Prisoners are often lacking in basic skills; come from socially deprived backgrounds; they are often school pushouts/dropouts and have come in conflict with the law at an early age. Prisoners demonstrate a high incidence of illiteracy, low intelligence, learning disabilities, and reading disabilities. It is estimated that the typical inmate functions two or three grade levels below the level completed in school. The best way to meet the education needs of prisoners is to provide adult education conforming to the principles formulated by Knowles (1980). A fundamental consideration in adult education is recognizing and adapting learning to cater to the needs of the learner. This requires educators to present a delivery system that takes into account the wide range of individual differences in age, levels of prior experience, attitudes, interests, and learning styles of a group whose only common denominator is serving time. Applying the concepts of adult education could make correctional education more successful and beneficial to prisoners and society. (KC)