Prisons serve as a principal form of punishment in the United States. In 1997, federal prison facilities held 99,000 inmates, while state prisons held just over one million inmates. Local jails held another 567,000 prisoners. These figures represent a constant and dramatic rise in prison population since the early 1990s, when federal prisons held 56,000 inmates and state prisons held 533,000 inmates. (Lipton, Falkin, & Wexler, 1992). These increases in prison population are largely due to the public outcry against drug-related crimes and the resultant tougher sentencing practices that have been enacted against the committers of these crimes and against repeat offenders (Wexler et al., 1992). State and federal sentencing guidelines impose mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes and these sentences are often lengthy. Repeat offenders in some jurisdictions, including New York, can be sentenced to life imprisonment. Most states have chosen to respond to prison crowding by accelerating the construction of...