America's Overcrowded Prisons

This article, which appeared in the GAO Journal, No. 7, Fall 1989, presents the viewpoints of 11 leading criminal justice researchers and practitioners regarding the remedies to prison overcrowding. The experts explore such issues as: (1) mandatory limits on inmate populations; (2) new prison construction; (3) incarceration alternatives for nonviolent criminals; (4) probation; (5) sentencing guidelines; (6) community alternatives to incarceration; (7) shorter sentences; (8) recognition of the public health and social aspects, as well as the criminal justice aspect, of the drug problem; (9) improved prison management; and (10) social change to reduce violent crime.