THE TOTAL OF 150 PERSONS SENTENCED IN DENVER DISTRICT COURTS BETWEEN JULY 1, 1978, AND DECEMBER 31, 1978, WAS STUDIED. THE PRE-SENTENCE REPORTS WERE USED AS THE DATA SOURCE, WITH THE OFFENSE REPORTS AND COURT RECORDS AS SUPPLEMENTS. NO MORE THAN 31 PERCENT OVERLAP WAS FOUND IN ALL THREE GROUPS. WHERE OVERLAP OCCURRED, PROBATION CASES WERE MORE LIKELY TO FALL INTO THE COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS GROUP THAN INTO THE INCARCERATED GROUP. COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS CASES WERE MORE FREQUENTLY PREDICTED TO FALL INTO PROBATION THAN INTO INCARCERATION. THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS GROUP SHOWED THE MOST HETEROGENEITY WITH ONLY 69 PERCENT OF THE CASES PREDICTED TO RECEIVE INCARCERATION, ACTUALLY BEING INCARCERATED. WHEN THE PREDICTION WAS OTHER THAN INCARCERATION, THERE WAS NO STRONG TENDENCY TO FALL INTO EITHER OF THE TWO OTHER GROUPS. A SIMILAR TYPE OF ANALYSIS WAS PERFORMED ALLOWING FOR ONLY TWO DISPOSITIONAL OUTCOMES, PROBATION OR INSTITUTIONS, AND DETERMINING THE GROUP INTO WHICH COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS CASES WERE PREDICTED TO FALL. APPROXIMATELY HALF OF THE COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS CLIENTS MORE CLOSELY RESEMBLED PERSONS BEING INCARCERATED, WHILE THE OTHER HALF MORE CLOSELY RESEMBLED PROBATIONERS. GIVEN THE LATITUDE ALLOWED BY STATUTE, RESEARCHERS CONSIDERED THIS PREDICTABLE. WHILE THE ABOVE ANALYSIS IS USEFUL IN TERMS OF ESTABLISHING WHETHER THE SENTENCING ALTERNATIVES REPRESENT DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT GROUPS, THE FINDINGS CANNOT BE SEEN AS HAVING STATEWIDE IMPLICATIONS IN VIEW OF SAMPLING LIMITATIONS. EXPANSION OF THE STUDY STATEWIDE IS RECOMMENDED. TABULAR DATA IS PROVIDED. ABI ELP