The study provides information on the number of people incarcerated in prisons and jails; on the characteristics of those incarcerated; the length of incarceration; the conditions of incarceration; reasons why so may people are incarcerated; and the costs, benefits, and efficacy of current incarceration policies. General recommendations are that each State adopt a comprehensive community corrections act that would help relieve prison and jail overcrowding, that each jurisdiction adopt sentencing guidelines that encompass community-based sanctions, that sentencing guidelines be so drafted that prison and jail space is generally reserved for violent offenders, that jurisdictions expand the use of means-based fines, and that mandatory minimum sentences be repealed. Other general recommendations pertain to correctional programming and research.