A lack of adequate jail capacity has resulted in a game of musical chairs that releases dangerous offenders who commit further crimes, such as the case of Willie Horton who repeatedly raped a woman and tortured her fiance while on a furlough from his first-degree murder sentence. A 1979 study of prison entrants found that, at the time of their admission, 28 percent would still have been in prison on an earlier conviction if they had served their maximum prior sentence. A study of 1,672 convicted felons released on probation showed that 65 percent were rearrested over a 40-month period, and 53 percent had charges filed against them, predominantly for violent crimes. The price of prison construction should be weighed against the price paid for the premature release of hardened offenders as a result of overcrowding. Victim losses per crime coupled with multiple offenses suggest that the typical offender is responsible for $430,000 in crime costs. In addition crime has other unquantifiable costs including fear of crime, increased consumer prices, and low morale among criminal justice personnel. Further, the deterrence value of available prison space is another cost savings. Efforts are underway to lower prison costs. These include prefab prisons, privatization, prison industries, and victim compensation. Failure to maintain prison capacity to cut costs could be a false economy that causes further breakdown of the criminal justice system. 2 figures.