Many rural jail facilities are too old and poorly designed to become vehicles for meeting contemporary standards, and few members of rural jail staffs have ever received any police or corrections training. Even if training is offered, the sheriff is often too short of staff to allow attendance at training sessions. One-third of the jails in the United States have no physician services, and less than 40 percent have a regular nonemergency medical service. In the area of dental services, most rural counties only permit tooth extractions for jail inmates. Jails are often repositories for the mentally ill, the mentally retarded, the chronic alcoholic, the drug addict, the status offender, and the juvenile offender. It is clear that jails are not appropriate for nonviolent persons with special problems that should be treated by other county and government agencies. Regional jails are being touted as one approach for improving facilities, staff, and services, and another suggested approach is to place the operation of the local jail under the State department of corrections. This would compensate for inadequate local resources for jails. Other approaches proven effective are the use of police options other than arrest, judges' use of community services for nonviolent offenders, the greater use and strengthening of probation, and the expansion of study and work release for inmates, along with other options benefiting from community services. Twenty notes are listed.