The population explosion in American prisons in the past decade and the accompanying problems of crowding, disorder, violence, and kindred phenomena have been widely publicized. However, much less is known about the views of correctional administrators regarding these phenomena. This paper presents survey data from the 50 state correctional directors, who were queried about the extent of prison overcrowding in their states and the various administrative responses they have adopted to deal with the problem. The paper also examines the administrators' views regarding alternatives to incarceration and the classes of offenders whom they perceive to be eligible for these incarceration alternatives.
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