There are only two basic options for reducing prison populations: "front-door" options that send fewer people to prison and for shorter periods and "back-door" options that lets inmates out sooner than under previous policies. "Front-door" strategies include repealing mandatory minimum sentencing laws; reducing the number of offenses for which incarceration is a sentencing option; establishing presumptive sentencing guidelines that are premised on the policy that lengths of all prison sentences should be reduced by an assigned percentage; the reduction of guideline-judgment starting points for all crimes by some percentage; and the creation of new credible community penalties reinforced by sentencing guidelines and training in their use. Other "front-door" options are to discourage the imposition of prison sentences of 6 months or less; create a new sentence of intermittent confinement; create and promote new diversion programs; prohibit prison admissions when the inmate population exceeds 95 percent of capacity; divert all drug-dependent offenders into drug treatment programs; and develop less punitive policies for dealing with violations of community supervision. "Back-door" policies include the implementation of a large-scale amnesty for inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses; re-establish a broad-based parole release system; set an absolute prison capacity limit; authorize petitioning for the resentencing of inmates; give the prison service the discretion to release inmates in community programs on a case-by-case basis; provide early release into intensive community supervision programs; and prohibit the extension of prison sentences as a sanction for violations of prison rules. 25 references