The NIJ Jails Division has received approximately 200 requests for crowding-related technical assistance since FY 1983 -- an average of 3 per month. Annual costs of NIC assistance range from $50,000 to $150,000, and the average technical assistance visit costs $2,000 to $3,000. Seventy-five percent of the assistance has gone to county governments; the remainder to large cities (28 percent of remainder), universities and professional organizations (32 percent), State governments (28 percent), and courts (12 percent). Reasons why agencies ask NIC for assistance are: to comply with a population cap mandate imposed on them by a Federal court (27 percent, half of them directed to do so by that court), a State-set population cap (17 percent), pending litigation (45 percent), local court cap (6 percent), and State prisoner back-up (6 percent), NIC consultants visiting a jurisdiction provide jail population forecasts and make recommendations. Six weeks after NIC visits, 17 percent of the jurisdictions report that their population has decreased, 69.7 percent report no impact, and 3 percent report an increase.