The director of the D.C. Department of Corrections described its detention, correctional, and community services, as well as administrative and judicial actions which have impacted the correctional populations's configuration. The next witness commented that solutions to overcrowding must be found that do not reduce protections for citizens. The U.S. Attorney General for the District of Columbia stated that problems of overcrowding must be addressed by the executive and the legislative branches of government rather than his office. He also said that most people incarcerated now are repeat offenders and discussed recent increases in prosecutions. The director of the Public Defender Service described problems encountered by attorneys trying to visit defendants in jail. He believed the system needed more alternatives to incarceration, such as restitution, fines, or community service. The director of the ACLU's National Prison Project emphasized that prisons were filled primarily with nonviolent rather than dangerous offenders and that long-term imprisonment did not deter crime. He also said that the system discriminated against blacks and other minorities and incarceration for most offenders should be a sanction of the last resort. Finally, inmates from Lorton described conditions there and suggested reforms. Witnesses' prepared statements are provided.