Rather than building enough prisons, what if they just set target incarceration rates, built capacity for that, and then required that the justice system senten

Rather than building enough prisons, what if they just set target incarceration rates, built capacity for that, and then required that the justice system sentence and parole accordingly? There's no reason to have over half a percentage of point of the entire population in prison. Almost no other country in the world does this. Capping incarceration rates not only prevents prison overcrowding, but is a forcing function for policy changes that actually lower crime, as well as alternative sentencing options for non-violent crime (which almost always have better outcomes.)