Legislators continue to adopt mandatory sentencing statutes without regard to the availability of correctional facilities. Selective incapacitation is a strategy that attempts to use objective actuarial evidence to improve the ability of the current system to identify and confine offenders who represent the most serious risk to the community. In the context of overall sentencing reform, selective incapacitation offers the possibility of concentrating scarce and costly prison resources on those most likely to commit crimes if not confined. Selective incapacitation should not be the only rationale for incarceration. Other purposes of sentencing (punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation) are also important, and they may justify imprisonment
