The aims of custodial sentencing are the different reasons/rationale for its use. There are four main aims of custodial sentencing: incapacitation (to protect other people); rehabilitation (using education and treatment programmes to change offender behaviour); retribution (to show society and the victim’s family that the offender has been forced to pay for their actions); and deterrence (to prevent the offender re-offending and demonstrate to society the consequences of similar actions).