Policymakers may be calling for more alternatives to expensive incarceration, but a new study projects that the U.S. prison population will grow by about 200,000 inmates over the next five years, the Associated Press reported Feb. 14.

The increase, tied to factors like three-strikes laws and "truth in sentencing" policies, is expected to cost states more than $27 billion. The report from the Pew Charitable Trusts' Public Safety Performance Project projects growth on a state-by-state basis, based in part on local criminal-justice policies and demographics.

Susan Urahn, managing director of policy initiatives at Pew, said that states need to plan to either build more prisons or slow prison population growth by adopting alternative sanctions. "There are a growing number of states really focused, not on being tough on crime or soft on crime, but on being smart about crime," she said. "Every state faces unique circumstances and challenges."

The study projects a prison population of 1.7 million by 2011, up 13 percent from current levels. By contrast, the U.S. population as a whole is expected to grow just 4.5 percent in the next five years.

"Truth in sentencing, three strikes and you're out -- it looks great on paper, but try to make it work," said Connecticut Rep. Michael Lawlor, a former prosecutor and co-chairman of the state legislature's Judiciary Committee. "There's a pretty long list of people who deserve to be locked up forever, but it's not the majority of people in prison. If you can get people into a room instead of a campaign debate, it's really easy to come to consensus [on reforms]."