The Sentencing Reform Act requires courts to "recogniz[e] that imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation." 18 U.S.C. § 3582(a). In Tapia v. United States, 564 U.S. 319 (2011), this Court held that § 3582(a) "precludes sentencing courts from imposing or lengthening a prison term to promote an offender's rehabilitation." Id. at 332. The question presented is whether § 3582(a) prohibits sentencing courts from taking rehabilitation into consideration at all in selecting a prison sentence (as the Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits have held), or whether it merely prohibits them from making rehabilitation the primary or dominant consideration in selecting a prison sentence (as the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Circuits have held).

Whether § 3582(a) prohibits sentencing courts from taking rehabilitation into consideration at all in selecting a prison sentence, or whether it merely prohibits them from making rehabilitation the primary or dominant consideration