CONVICTS: They are hardcore career criminals, tough, unregenerate wise guys who are so smart that they spend most of their lives in prison. They live for rape, robbery, narcotics, violence and murder - and that's when they're behind bars.

JAILBIRDS: Here are the gutter sweepings of the jailhouse system: second-rate, penny-ante crooks, thieves, dope peddlers, strong-arm goons and scam artists. They dream only of getting up enough nerve to pull off some heavy scores and graduate to big-time plunder and murder.

AND REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS: Forming switchblade-wielding girl gangs, taking their first shots of heroin, making "easy money" by selling their fresh young bodies, and attaching themselves to up-and-coming gun punks and triggermen, they're strictly poison in a candy wrapper.

CONVICTS, JAILBIRDS AND REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS -singly or in combination, they spell "Trouble" for decent citizens and the police as witnessed in this double fistful collection of true crime tales from the 1950s.