Unusual Punishment traces the journey of one prison from order to chaos and back again. As the 1960s drew to an end, the Washington State Penitentiary was an ordered world over which one man exercised absolute control. On the warden's word an inmate could be thrown naked into a blackout cell without light or companionship, or an officer's career could abruptly end. A few years later, all semblance of order had vanished. Convicts had the only keys to certain prison areas. Bikers roared their prison-made choppers around the Big Yard. Frustrated and afraid, correctional officers quit or simply looked the other way. It took years of struggle, sacrifice, and pain to bring a new kind of order to the prison.