Despite its high crime rate, the District of Columbia has historically had one of the toughest criminal justice systems in the Nation. This has continued into the 1990s. For the most recent 3 years for which data are available, the District has the longest time served in prison and jail of any State and has the second highest mean maximum sentences. In 1993 for the first time in the District's history, more District residents were sitting in prison cells than in publicly funded college classrooms. In 1980 the black enrollment rate at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) was 3.5 times that of the black incarceration rate. By 1994 the black enrollment rate at UDC decreased by 10.6 percent, and the black incarceration rate increased more than fourfold, to 2,966 per 100,000. The residents of the District are losing access to a 4-year, publicly funded education. This paper recommends that the Federal guidelines proposal be abandoned in favor of the current "mixed" sentencing system; that a moratorium be adopted on new prison construction, with the nonviolent prisoner population being halved over the next 5 years; that community corrections initiatives be undertaken; and that a prison authority be established to ensure that most D.C. inmates are kept within 200 miles of the District. 9 figures and 23 notes