In 1967/8, the author interviewed 418 men charged with breaking and entering offences, in the course of a study of pre‐trial detention. (The principal finding of the study was that 85% of the men remanded in custody had Manhattan Bail Scheme scores suggesting that they qualified for release on bail, and that the detained men fared worse in court and in their private lives than those released on bail). The following is a shortened version of Chapter 3 ofImprisonment without Sentence, to be published by Tavistock Publications Lt