Rapport in social situations in which distrust prevails involves special difficulties. The prison environment is filled with mistrust : the inmates regard the prison staff as source of danger, and the prison staff regard the inmates with suspicion. There are also conflicts among inmates, and the inmate sometimes fears being killed by some other inmate. Researchers are regarded by inmates as either siding with the prison authority, or being socially too distant to understand the inmate world, or being naive enough to pass information unwittingly onto wrong persons. Consequently the inmates give “phony” information to researchers which at the same time satisfies the researchers and safeguards the inmates.