The course aims to analyze the issues surrounding the prison, illustrating the main contributions to the study of the evolution of the prison institution, its functions and the practices carried out there. The current situation of prisons in Italy will then be analyzed, with particular attention to the issues of overcrowding, the detained population, immigrants in prison, recidivism. Part of the course will be reserved for the sociological analysis of the current conditions of the prison population and emerging problems: work, health, cultural and educational activities. The protection of fundamental rights in detention conditions, both from a regulatory point of view and in relation to the role and tasks of the guarantor of prisoners