In response to the need for cost-effective alternatives to traditional incarceration, Congress authorized the CODP as part of the Crime Control Act of 1990. The Bureau of Justice Assistance was assigned the responsibility of administering the program, and the National Institute of Justice was to conduct a national evaluation. The demonstration grants were to be made to State and local correctional agencies for the primary purpose of reducing the use of incarceration for nonviolent offenders. Grants were also authorized to private nonprofit organizations to support the planning, development, and implementation of demonstration projects. The authorization for the CODP required that a national evaluation be conducted to measure the process of program development and implementation and program impact for selected sites. This report focuses on the programs and evaluation for the four original CODP sites: Florida, Maryland, Vermont, and Washington State. A fifth site (the California Youth Authority's boot camp program) was later added based on its subsequent funding and its strong evaluation design. This program is also considered in this report. The process evaluation results showed that many of the CODP's experienced substantial implementation problems that hampered the potential of each program to achieve its goals and objectives, which in turn made them inappropriate candidates for impact evaluations. The pilot programs were successful, however, in targeting offenders who would have been incarcerated without the program. They also succeeded in varying degrees in providing substantial and appropriate services to offenders who could be placed in the community without compromising public safety. Programs showed the potential for being cost-effective, but only if they could be greatly expanded to target a far larger pool of incarcerated inmates. This goal is unlikely to be achieved as long as alternatives to incarceration are viewed as individual programs that do not require reforms in existing policies and laws that would achieve reductions in prison admissions and/or lengths of stay. 15 tables and 13 notes