Results of the analysis indicate that, despite legislative actions designed to increase prison terms, the use of sentencing alternatives, as measured by rising probation and parole populations, has expanded as fast as prisons. As a result, the rise in prison populations and continued overcrowding of facilities cannot be attributed to the courts' failure to use alternative sanctions, but to the growth of the country's correctional- industrial complex, under which a growing proportion of defendants brought before the courts are being placed in some type of correctional supervision. By 1988, approximately 2 percent of the adult population in the U.S. was under some form of correctional control. These people tend to be young males who are uneducated, unemployed or underemployed, and black or Hispanic. The growth of corrections during the 1980's fueled a concomitant growth in government spending. Other related social and economic trends resulting from the expansion of the correctional-industrial complex include an increase in the number of persons living in poverty, particularly minority children; an increase in the number of single-parent families; and a huge proportion of Americans living without health insurance. Should these trends persist, the author argues, there will be an associated increase in the incidence of crime and other social problems, and a growing public demand to fund criminal justice services. 3 tables, 3 figures, and 15 notes