For many years, conventional wisdom has been that "nothing works" to change offender behavior--that once an offender has turned to crime little acn be done to help turn his or her life around. Today, however, there is a voluminous body of solid research showing that certain "evidence-based" sentencing and corrections practices do work and can reduce crime rates as effectively as prisons at much lower cost. A comprehensive study by the Washington legislature, for example, showed that greater use of these evidence-based practices would reduce Washington's crime rate by 8 percent while saving tax payers over $2billion.