The public believes that prisons should be more rehabilitative and less punitive; they are reluctant to spend tax monies on prisons, and they support alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders. Most public officials and criminal justice personnel also hold these views, but mistakenly perceive the public as vindictive and hostile to alternatives. The public believes that courts are too lenient on criminals, but also that incarceration fails to rehabilitate. It sees poverty and unemployment as significant causes of crime and believes that the criminal justice system should seek to prevent crime before it happens. Consideration must be given to the possibility that public responses were influenced by the wording of the questions in the different polls consulted. 6 references