Much of the overcrowding over the State's history has resulted from the rise in the State's population. However, today's increase in the inmate population has resulted from the determinate sentence. In addition, the current situation reflects the inherent flaws in the continued use of imprisonment, which is an inflexible and costly approach to corrections. However, New Jersey's response to overcrowding has been to build new institutions. Nevertheless, the State is also committed to providing intensive community supervision. This type of program will help somewhat, but the public seems to support prison construction projects because they offer the illusion of providing incapacitation. However, the use of community supervision programs as well as longer sentences may well produce a net-widening effect. The trend toward greater use of this costly and ineffective approach will probably continue until we recognize and address the real problem: fear of crime. 45 references.