Overcrowding has consistently been identified by criminal justice practitioners as one of the most serious problems facing criminal justice systems. Jail overcrowding is caused by a number of factors that include crime rates; legal and political environments; demographic, economic, and social conditions; resources and expenditures; and public attitudes and the "get- tough" movement. Over time the courts have moved from a "hands- off" policy toward corrections conditions and policies to an activist approach of mandating the reform of jail conditions detrimental to inmates' rights. Some of the impacts of court- ordered reform include changes in institutional conditions and jail administration. Critics of court-ordered reform have cited unintended impacts, such as reduced inmate respect for staff, increased rule violations by inmates, reduced staff morale, uncertainty in guards' decision-making, and increased assaults by inmates on guards and one another. There have also been systemwide impacts as changes in one area of the system inevitably impact policies and conditions in other system components. Court-ordered institutional reform is not the best approach to resolving jail overcrowding. What is needed is a careful process of problem analysis, policy design, and evaluation. Well-planned research can open the door for coordinated policy innovation rather than a "piecemeal political patchwork of minor ameliorations" (Mattick, 1974: 822). The major obstacle to a more rational system of punishment is the tendency to seize on unrelated, simplistic solutions at the expense of more coordinated but complex plans informed by policy-relevant research. Study questions, 4 footnotes, 73 references, and 10 cited cases