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This article examines aspects of penal reform within our present criminal justice system. The author advocates application of a systems analysis approach to penal problems in order to provide predictive knowledge concerning effects that arise when changes or reforms are made within the penal system. He also suggests certain practical improvements that can be made in the present system and proposes that an agency be established by the Florida legislature to study the criminal justice system.

Comments on recommendations by the Sub-Committee on Penal Reform supporting a reversal of the expansionist approach to imprisonment in Ireland through: (1) the adoption of a decarceration strategy; (2) substituting community service for prison terms of less than six months for non-violent offences; (3) increasing the standard rate of remission; (4) provision of a modern legislative framework for all forms of early release; and (5) a rebalancing of the system, with greater use being made of open prison and all prisoners being held in decent conditions.