Almost all jurisdictions surveyed project future inmate populations by using a variety of techniques; most depend on computer models, and most are reported to be fairly accurate. According to respondents, the number of inmates in State and Federal institutions will increase by over 200,000, or approximately 20 percent, by 1998. By 2002 the number of inmates is expected to exceed 1.4 million, a 43-percent increase over current levels. Individual jurisdictions are projecting even more dramatic increases at the local level. Most jurisdictions acknowledge that construction plans are inadequate to house the number of inmates projected for the beginning of the next millennium. The current "get tough" corrections policies do not promise relief from the flood of offenders coming into prisons. Forty-nine percent of all respondents reported that recent anti- crime legislation has increased the rate of prison population growth beyond what was previously projected. Increased facility construction is always an option, but this is an expensive strategy, not only in terms of initial costs, but in recurring annual costs of staffing and the maintaining of prison facilities and inmates. The current construction boom, unrivaled in U.S. history, has had the effect only of containing rather than solving the overcrowding problem. 4 figures