Reporters Jim Douglas Henry, Jeremy James, Jeanne La Char, Denis Tuohy, Desmond Wilcox, Harold Williamson

This week: The Prisoner
What chance has John Booroff got? At 38, a petty criminal, he wanted, more than anything, to go straight. For five years he made it. He succeeded in putting behind him a lifetime of crime, 17 prison sentences served in 20 years. For the first time in his life he led what the prison authorities call 'a good and useful life.' He met and married a woman who had never had a wrong word with the police. They started a family, he found the kind of security and the sort of love he'd never known before.

Then he was back in prison again - where we met him. An experienced, embittered criminal. He's out now, trying, once again, to go straight. Should the rest of us even care? There are experts concerned with prison, crime and recidivists who spend much time considering the problem.

The story of John Booroff is that of just one man, one set of circumstances, one life of crime. So if it illuminates the problem, it does so by letting us understand a single prisoner. There are 40,000 men behind bars in this country today. John Booroff is one who wants to go straight, and stay out In his eyes his life went wrong almost from the day he was born. He's nearly middle-aged now. Can he make it?