Contractual agreements and contingency management procedures were used in an attempt to increase the productivity of 16 prison inmates studying programmed educational materials. Programmed instruction requires that S respond in a verbal (written) manner to specially constructed questions and/or statements. A question or statement and its corresponding response constitute a “frame.” Ss agreed to complete a progressively greater number of frames per week during an E-management phase. Work was assigned daily by means of a performance contract. During a subsequent self-management phase Ss contracted with themselves to produce more frames than they had completed during the baseline. Following completion of a unit of work during the E-management and self-management phases, S was allowed a 15-min. period in which he could either select an item from a reinforcement menu or opt to return to the study area. Under contingency-management procedures Ss successfully completed the work assigned at first by E and later by themselves. Increased amounts of work were accompanied by greater work efficiency; total time in the work area per day decreased, and the number of frames completed per hour increased. Test performance was better during the contingency-management phases than in the baseline phase.