This paper focuses on the initiatives of a few idealistic prison managers in different countries who at different times braved the punitive tide to apply reformative principles. In support, it cites a growing number of compelling research studies from prisons and other places of confinement that bear on fair custodial management. It is presented in the hope of inspiring more managers to follow suit and to persuade administrators, personnel selectors, staff trainers, and others within the penal system to countenance systemic reform as their raison d'être. Following the halting progress of central and local governments in matters of penal reform, it could be seen as a third way of tackling a most vexatious humanitarian issue.