Although many studies have used states' stock imprisonment rates to gauge the relative punitiveness of U.S. jurisdictions, there has been much less systematic research designed to explain the significant county-level differences in sentencing outcomes within the United States. This study focuses on the impact of new court commitments on prison use, using a 1998 national sample of court data from 172 U.S. counties to document and explain variations in use of prison as a sentencing option. Multivariate linear regression analyses show that each of the five considered legally relevant factors and two of the five extralegal variables—Southern region and political conservatism—influence prison use. Three other extralegal factors—racial composition, economic disadvantage, and urbanization—do not affect prison use according to our model. Implications of these findings for both research and policy are discussed.
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