Andragogy has been posited as a theory of adult learning that provides a unifying concept for the practice of adult education. Because the assumptions of andragogy only indirectly adduce the needs of society and do not purport to accommodate the proprietary interests of institutions at all, it would seem that andragogy would not be appropriate as a unifying theory for adult education in corrections. This is true, first of all, because the purposes and aims of correctional programs do not reflect the existential goals of self-actualization. Furthermore, as a program design model, andragogy is dysfunctional in the prison milieu because the model requires that curricula relate to the developmental tasks of inmates' social roles and addresses their here-and-now needs. Finally, it is paradoxical that andragogy appears to run counter to the objectives of correctional education because the theory may have tremendous potential to effect social change by helping inmates to look critically at the world around them, to realize responsibility for their existence, to utilize past experience for future growth, to anticipate life challenges and find creative solutions to them, and to perceive themselves as the source of acts rather than as reactive volatile products of an ominous world. (MN)