Toward that end, and partly in response to the crisis of prison overcrowding in the last decade, a number of classification trends have developed. These include risk assessment, the development of objective approaches to classification, the integration of needs assessment, and the use of a systems approach to case management. Within each of these trends, the goal of effective resource allocation is balanced by pressures to achieve equity and accountability. A major obstacle to high quality offender classification and its associated resource management benefits has been the absence of a comprehensive systematic approach that addresses concretely the essential components and links that comprise such a system. The assessment-planning-intervention model provides such a systematic approach. The model provides a basis for developing criteria for measuring the adequacy of each component and the linkages among them and improves correctional management. Thus, compliance with assessment and planning should reduce such negative indicators as high turnover, poor staff morale, and inappropriate placements in order to correlate with more efficient use of intervention services. Greater compliance across all program components and associated criteria should produce positive results at both the institutional level and for individual inmates on such factors as infractions, morale, violence, adjustment, program participation, and skill acquisition, 4 tables and 44 references. (Author abstract modified)