The jail studied was Winson Green in Birmingham, England. Events leading up to the incarceration of the offenders were examined, along with the roles played by magistrates, probation officers, solicitors, and others during the offenders' progress through the courts. The prisoners' views of those events are also explored. Particular attention is given to fine-defaulters and civil prisoners, since they have received little notice in the debate on prison overcrowding and penal reform. Such offenders have been incarcerated primarily because they have been unwilling or unable to make monetary payments ordered by the courts. Their imprisonment, therefore, results only indirectly from a criminal offense. Although the study is critical of some individual actions that produce unnecessary imprisonments, the major criticism is of court systems and structures, in particular the overloading of the magistrates' courts system. Suggested changes would entail major changes in the way magistrates' courts operate. It is recommended that (1) rationales behind the sentences of imprisonment for petty offenders be carefully examined; (2) the use of community service orders as an alternative to imprisonment be increased; (3) imprisonment for nonpayment of fines be replaced by a criminal offense for persistently refusing or neglecting to pay a fine when one has the means to do so; and (4) imprisonment for maintenance-default and other debts be abolished. Additional recommendations and notes are included.