The educational experience for an inmate is part of an ethos of personal restriction. Within the social and physical restriction of prison, the research assessed the extent to which andragogical treatment could influence inmate mood and behavior in the classroom. The need to improve inmate readiness for the Federal Bureau of Prisons mandatory GED program was recognized by correctional education staff. Implementing methods based on assumptions in andragogy, an orientation treatment group was compared to a control group for significant difference in emotional readiness and GED classroom behavior. Educational orientation, an andragogical component recommended in adult education literature, was the vital first step in establishing the best mood state for learning. The research design was a quasi-experimental post-test only design. The objectives of the treatment reflected hypotheses that there was a significant difference between andragogically oriented students and nonoriented students in self-reports of POMS values, classroom teacher assessments of mood states, and mean values of off-task classroom behaviors. The orientation attempted to manipulate the classroom ethos to a positive mood persuasive in the classroom environment, and the hypotheses isolated the mood states and behavior that contributed to ethos. The population was male inmates entering the GED classroom at the Federal Correctional Institution, Manchester, Kentucky, from January 31, 2007, through March 30, 2007. Hypotheses were tested to determine if orientation to a mandatory GED class improved readiness in self-perception of mood state, teacher perception of mood state, and teacher perception of classroom behavior. The orientation treatment demonstrated mixed results. Teacher evaluations of negative classroom behavior reflected no difference between the treatment and control groups. However, the analysis of the electronic student record demonstrated significant difference in behavior between the control and treatment groups. Orientation demonstrated usefulness in the actual behavior of the student. In terms of negative behavior, the orientation was a statistically significant contribution to improving classroom ethos. (Contains 5 tables.)