In Massachusetts, the state corrections commissioner has asked district attorneys to slow down their prosecutions because prison overcrowding has created a "serious situation". In Illinois, some 600 inmates will be released early from state prisons because there is simply no room for them. In Idaho, 400 inmates at Idaho State Penitentiary went on a rampage last week demanding, among other things, more opportunities for vocational training. These are all-too-familiar reminders this summer that greater public attention needs to be given to resolving the persistent problems confronting America’s outmoded, overcrowded, and violence-prone penal institutions.The number of prisoners held by federal and state corrections authorities continues to grow. With the highest incarceration rate of any Western nation (except for South Africa), the US increased its prison population to 314,083 in 1979, a record high for the fifth consecutive year. This is largely the result of new laws with mandatory sentences for drug-related and certain other offenses as well as the recent trend toward imposition of longer sentences.Yet, these grim figures are forcing something to be done. There are encouraging signs that because of prison overcrowding a number of states are seeking out innovative alternatives to the traditional walled-in fortresslike prisons from which many offenders, far from being rehabilitated, have emerged better schooled in the ways of crime than in how to become responsible members of society.