Prior to the 18th century, corporal and capital punishment were applied to offenders along with mutilation, fines, confiscation, and banishment. In the 18th century, prisons replaced more severe corporal punishments as well as the wholesale use of capital punishment. The 19th century emphasized changing offenders through education, while the 20th century turned to the use of the behavioral sciences to rehabilitate offenders. In the mid-1960's rehabilitation was discredited by evaluation studies, and policymakers groped for a new corrections philosophy. The policy vacuum has been filled by a renewed emphasis on punishment and incapacitation, resulting in prison overcrowding. To resolve the current criminal justice policy crisis, the equal importance of punishment, incapacitation, and rehabilitation should be recognized; all three approaches should be applied to offenders according to their characteristics and needs. Research must establish which distinguishing characteristics qualify offenders for particular strategies.