America's incarceration rate is the highest in the free world. A disproportionate number of minorities and poor people are locked up and for longer periods of time than in other nations. Yet prisons do not rehabilitate, are often unsanitary and overcrowded, and are costly to build and operate. Prison does offer protection from the 10-20 percent of the incarcerated who are truly violent, but for the remainder, alternatives are needed. Probation is the oldest alternative to prison and costs only a fraction as much. Prisoners and Community Together (PACT), an organization based in Indiana, operates several proven alternatives: a community service restitution program in Porter County, Ind., a residential community-based center in Michigan City, Ind., a work release center in Chicago; and a victim/offender reconciliation program in Elkhart County, Ind. These programs and others like them across the country serve to punish offenders, while at the same time helping victims and reducing offenders' exposure to prison life. They are less costly than prison or jail and can help to reduce prison overcrowding.