| Sumario: | This article discusses a study which investigated the effect of legal services on the attitudes and rehabilitation of prisoners in Washington State. The increasing role of law in human affairs has become the subject of intense political and scholarly debate. Much of this debate is focused on over criminalization of behavior and on the mobilization of power to influence lawmaking and its enforcement. In 1972, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services contracted with the Seattle-King County Legal Services Center to provide civil legal assistance to eligible adult residents of all Washington State correctional institutions and their families. The goal of the Prisoner's Legal Services Project was to provide for the legal rights of prisoners and to reduce recidivism. Discovery of an institutional behavior effect subsequent to the attitudinal measures obtained directly from inmates is encouraging, but hardly conclusive of behavior effects like those involved in recidivism. Because the legal order is central to so many aspects of life, learning to cope with problems with the aid of legal counsel becomes increasingly important. In the long term, this may be the outcome of greatest importance in legal aid to prisoners, minorities and the poor.
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