Approximately 5 ,000 people who have been convicted of nonvi

Question

Approximately 5 ,000 people who have been convicted of nonviolent crimes in the state have been given community-service sentences instead of prison sentences. These offenders perform services commensurate with their training and skills, from scrubbing floors to conducting research for the state. The community-service program, which began in 1979, has grown immensely as a result of drunken-driver legislation en-acted a few months ago.
The introduction of the community-service program in 1979 was most probably prompted by which of the following, all of which occurred during the 1970's?
(A)A decrease in the number of violent crimes in the state
(B)An increase in the number of crimes committed by employees of the state
(C)A gradual decrease in the median age of judges in the state
(D)The overcrowding of prisons in the state
(E)The passage of drunken-driver legislation in other states

The correct answer is D, why not E?

mba1382 · Answer

None of the choices look convincing to be honest. What is the source? Doesn't seem like a typical GMAT question.

Experts feedback will be good in this case

JesseWhelan · Answer

For me ,the answer by elimination is D

A)-->passage talks about non-violent crimes
B)-->employees of the state are irrelevant
C)-->judges do not write legislation and therefore a fairly broad assumption to think this would have been the reason
D)-->Overcrowding could be a reason for taking non-violent offenders out of the prison system CORRECT
E0-->Passage of this legislation in other states would explain passing of similar drunk-driver legislation in 1979 not now as the passage states

Kudos if this helps

jeffjose · Answer

You say the correct answer is D, but you've provided E in the post.!

Here's my take for D - 
(A)A decrease in the number of violent crimes in the state
 A decrease in violent crime does not lead to change in punishment for non-violent crimes.
 (B)An increase in the number of crimes committed by employees of the state
 Again doesnt change what punishment is appropriate.
 (C)A gradual decrease in the median age of judges in the state
 Nope. Same reason as above.
 (D)The overcrowding of prisons in the state
 Correct. This is especially true because community service is given OVER prison sentence. So something happened in 1970s related to prisons, and the reason is they became overcrowded.
 (E)The passage of drunken-driver legislation in other states
 Drunken driving scenario comes in because of a change of legislation "few months ago" - say in 2013 (as of writing). Put another way, drunken driving wasnt the primary motive to change from prison sentence to community service.

jlgdr · Answer

Dude is the OA 'D' or 'E' Also, you may wanna use a spoiler next time

Cheers! J

amitgupta7587 · Answer

The answer should be D, until unless there was an additional premise in the argument stating that the Subject State prison's were over saturated , because of housing prisoners from other states. :-)

Mahmud6 · Answer

The correct answer is D, but in spoiler it is given E.
The incorrect answer in spoiler confuses me and hopefully all.
Please rectify the issue.
Thanks.

manhasnoname · Answer

Could some experts confirm what the right answer is. No way (E) can be. Passage does not talk about what happened in other states.

startjumprun · Answer

I have marked D asmy OA. I cant see any reason why can E be OA? Experts pls guide

winionhi · Answer

OA is incorrect. Kindly review

sillyboy · Answer

+1 D.

What's the source? Doesn't look like a gmat question to me.

sayantanc2k · Answer

OA has been changed to D - this question seems to be too plain to be considered a typical GMAT style question.

Mahmud6 · Answer

I don't know how difficulty level of a question is defined. 
The difficulty level shall also need to be justified. Surely, it is not of a 95% level difficult question!

sayantanc2k · Answer

The difficulty level is determined by the proprotion of correct answers to wrong. Thus if the original poster of the question has given a wrong OA or posted an unauthentic question, the difficulty % goes haywire. We ( i.e. people like you who highlight the mistakes, and moderators like us) together try to eliminate as many mistakes or misconceptions as possible so as to make this forum as useful to the GMAT aspirants as we can. Thank you for your cooperation.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

Thinking difficulty level in the exam is bad habit. There is no chance to know any question's difficulty level in exam. So, try to ignore the difficulty level when you're in the exam hall-you already don't know what is the difficulty level is going on right now. Suppose, your difficulty level is going on 550 level right now, but you think that it is 750 difficulty level. This 750 level thing will give you stress, pain to solve next 550/560 level question, because you already thought that is 750/760 level question is going on. So, get rid the difficulty level from your head.
Thank you...

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Approximately 5 ,000 people who have been convicted of nonvi

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Approximately 5 ,000 people who have been convicted of nonvi

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards