Implementation of the act, which contains the most significant changes in the Federal criminal justice system ever enacted at one time, is expected to be a major step toward balancing the rights of the public and the rights of criminal defendants. Descriptions are provided of the provisions of all 23 chapters of the act as well as the provisions of the other statutes in order of the dates of their enactment. For each chapter and subpart and for each separate statute, the handbook provides a summary, an analysis and discussion explaining the new provisions in detail, a separate discussion of any Department of Justice policies affecting the implementation of the provisions, and the name and telephone number of a senior departmental attorney who is familiar with the new provisions and can help answer questions concerning them, two policies emphasized are the encouragement of regular use of pretrial detention provisions of chapter I for defendants likely to flee and the encouragement of efforts to obtain posttrial detention, pending appeal, of convicted defendants sentenced to imprisonment. Footnotes are included.