The article includes a brief history of the development of community sanctions and incarceration and a meta-analytic summary of the data. Intermediate sanctions appear to be "widening the net" by targeting low-risk offenders who would normally receive periods of regular probation, and increasing the number of technical violations, leading to higher rates of incarceration. There was little evidence of the effectiveness of intermediate sanctions on recidivism. The study does not support the hypothesis that longer periods of incarceration reduce recidivism. In fact, the evidence leads to the opposite conclusion, i.e., that prisons increase recidivism, acting as "schools for crime." The only treatment that appears to reduce individual offender recidivism is appropriate cognitive-behavioral treatments that embody known principles of effective intervention. The article concludes that the effectiveness of intermediate sanctions is mediated solely through the provision of treatment. Tables, notes