Since 1972, the number of adults serving prison sentences in the U.S. has more than doubled. The use of long-term incarceration is an expensive proposition and, despite the public demand for incarceration as punishment for offenders, practicality demands that State and local governments examine the use of alternative sanctions. Alabama, for example, has moved toward using alternative sentencing schemes in order to control the prison population, to react to the public's aversion toward new taxes, and to compensate for cuts in government services, including police. The Tuscaloosa Alternative Sentencing Program, initiated in 1991, focuses on those offenders who would not ordinarily receive probation but who are deemed likely to be manageable in the community if subjected to the conditions of carefully planned intermediate sanctions. 28 references