The study defines provisional detention as a form of detention ordered by the judge before the definitive sentence is pronounced. A study of the statistics of Quebec Correctional Services indicates that the use of provisional detention has increased by 85 percent from 1979/80 to 1988/89. In those 10 years, nearly half of admissions to Quebec prisons were under provisional detention. A study of offender characteristics shows that most offenders in provisional detention from 1981 to 1985 were male (93.8 percent), unmarried (79.4 percent), young (median age 27.6 years), and blue-collar workers (55.1 percent). Many of them had had previous contact with the prison system. The study concludes that the use of provisional detention has become the rule rather than the measure of last resort that the law intends it to be. This type of incarceration is stigmatizing and harmful to offenders and singles out the less privileged classes of society. It should be restricted in favor of less invasive measures. 40 references