The year 1988 was a signal year in the Nation's war on street crime -- symbolically, as presidential candidate George Bush attacked opponent Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts for his State's furlough program, and substantively, as Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse of 1988. The Act imposed severe new minimum sentences for drug offenses and permitted the death penalty for murder committed during a drug transaction. Additionally, it imposed civil penalties such as the cancellation of FHA mortgages, suspension of drivers' licenses, and denial of student loans and public housing, even for minor criminal convictions. The "get tough" trend, along with increases in reported crime and the public outcry that has accompanied them, has produced the highest incarceration rate in American history -- 673,565 inmates in State and Federal prisons (272 per 100,000 population) as of June 30, 1989. It also reflects the fact that State coercive power has deepened and broadened. Surveillance and computer record check of suspects, arrestees, and law-abiding citizens are increasingly important criminal justice tools. The crime-control benefits they produce are outweighed by serious deficiencies in record-keeping, leading, in many cases, to the wrongful detention of innocent persons.