General measures for preventing and reducing jail crowding are presented under the topics of time standards, the creation of complete and accurate data on jail populations, assistance from the National Institute of Corrections, and scheduling priority for cases of incarcerated defendants. Following general items in the checklist, actions for preventing and reducing jail crowding are presented under the categories of pretrial, post-trial, and funding unit issues. Pretrial measures are listed under bond practices, time to pretrial, pretrial alternatives to incarceration, an evaluation of prosecutors' charging and plea-bargaining practices, and the evaluation of docket allocation. Post-trial measures are presented under time to sentence and sentencing practices. Funding unit issues pertain to the scheduling of regular stakeholder meetings, grant activity, the adequacy of the jail facility, the adequacy of staffing at all levels of the criminal justice process, the daily cost of incarceration for inmates locally, and public relations. A section on best practices for controlling jail overcrowding contains recommendations for convening stakeholders, jail facility population review, maintaining constant collaboration/communication, caseflow management, effective media relations, the allocation of scarce resources, the development of appropriate alternative sanctions, and technical assistance. Measures taken by three Michigan counties pertain to a jail overcrowding release procedure, the use of community-based corrections as alternatives to jail, and a comprehensive program to reduce jail crowding.