diff --git a/.pylintrc b/.pylintrc
index 11e2ababa9..9ad209dd39 100644
--- a/.pylintrc
+++ b/.pylintrc
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ ignore-mixin-members=yes
 # (useful for modules/projects where namespaces are manipulated during runtime
 # and thus existing member attributes cannot be deduced by static analysis. It
 # supports qualified module names, as well as Unix pattern matching.
-ignored-modules=distutils
+ignored-modules=
 
 # List of class names for which member attributes should not be checked (useful
 # for classes with dynamically set attributes). This supports the use of
diff --git a/src/sagemaker/local/image.py b/src/sagemaker/local/image.py
index 32437a59c3..ef24bb0d99 100644
--- a/src/sagemaker/local/image.py
+++ b/src/sagemaker/local/image.py
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@
 import tarfile
 import tempfile
 
-from distutils.spawn import find_executable
 from threading import Thread
 from typing import Dict, List
 from six.moves.urllib.parse import urlparse
@@ -170,7 +169,7 @@ def _get_compose_cmd_prefix():
             compose_cmd_prefix.extend(["docker", "compose"])
             return compose_cmd_prefix
 
-        if find_executable("docker-compose") is not None:
+        if shutil.which("docker-compose") is not None:
             logger.info("'Docker Compose' found using Docker Compose CLI.")
             compose_cmd_prefix.extend(["docker-compose"])
             return compose_cmd_prefix
diff --git a/src/sagemaker/local/utils.py b/src/sagemaker/local/utils.py
index 950d0974db..2c2a5a1c90 100644
--- a/src/sagemaker/local/utils.py
+++ b/src/sagemaker/local/utils.py
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@
 import re
 import errno
 
-from distutils.dir_util import copy_tree
 from six.moves.urllib.parse import urlparse
 
 from sagemaker import s3
@@ -102,7 +101,7 @@ def move_to_destination(source, destination, job_name, sagemaker_session, prefix
 
 
 def recursive_copy(source, destination):
-    """A wrapper around distutils.dir_util.copy_tree.
+    """A wrapper around shutil.copy_tree.
 
     This won't throw any exception when the source directory does not exist.
 
@@ -111,7 +110,7 @@ def recursive_copy(source, destination):
         destination (str): destination path
     """
     if os.path.isdir(source):
-        copy_tree(source, destination)
+        shutil.copytree(source, destination, dirs_exist_ok=True)
 
 
 def kill_child_processes(pid):
diff --git a/src/sagemaker/workflow/_repack_model.py b/src/sagemaker/workflow/_repack_model.py
index 84b3a426f6..2a9129da2f 100644
--- a/src/sagemaker/workflow/_repack_model.py
+++ b/src/sagemaker/workflow/_repack_model.py
@@ -27,13 +27,6 @@
 # is unpacked for inference, the custom entry point will be used.
 # Reference: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/latest/dg/amazon-sagemaker-toolkits.html
 
-# distutils.dir_util.copy_tree works way better than the half-baked
-# shutil.copytree which bombs on previously existing target dirs...
-# alas ... https://bugs.python.org/issue10948
-# we'll go ahead and use the copy_tree function anyways because this
-# repacking is some short-lived hackery, right??
-from distutils.dir_util import copy_tree
-
 from os.path import abspath, realpath, dirname, normpath, join as joinpath
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -188,7 +181,7 @@ def repack(inference_script, model_archive, dependencies=None, source_dir=None):
 
         # copy the "src" dir, which includes the previous training job's model and the
         # custom inference script, to the output of this training job
-        copy_tree(src_dir, "/opt/ml/model")
+        shutil.copytree(src_dir, "/opt/ml/model", dirs_exist_ok=True)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":  # pragma: no cover
diff --git a/tests/data/_repack_model.py b/tests/data/_repack_model.py
index 3cfa6760b3..b370db5dbf 100644
--- a/tests/data/_repack_model.py
+++ b/tests/data/_repack_model.py
@@ -26,13 +26,6 @@
 # is unpacked for inference, the custom entry point will be used.
 # Reference: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/latest/dg/amazon-sagemaker-toolkits.html
 
-# distutils.dir_util.copy_tree works way better than the half-baked
-# shutil.copytree which bombs on previously existing target dirs...
-# alas ... https://bugs.python.org/issue10948
-# we'll go ahead and use the copy_tree function anyways because this
-# repacking is some short-lived hackery, right??
-from distutils.dir_util import copy_tree
-
 
 def repack(inference_script, model_archive, dependencies=None, source_dir=None):  # pragma: no cover
     """Repack custom dependencies and code into an existing model TAR archive
@@ -92,7 +85,7 @@ def repack(inference_script, model_archive, dependencies=None, source_dir=None):
 
         # copy the "src" dir, which includes the previous training job's model and the
         # custom inference script, to the output of this training job
-        copy_tree(src_dir, "/opt/ml/model")
+        shutil.copytree(src_dir, "/opt/ml/model", dirs_exist_ok=True)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":  # pragma: no cover
diff --git a/tests/unit/sagemaker/local/test_local_image.py b/tests/unit/sagemaker/local/test_local_image.py
index 3142fa6dfa..3bb15dc43d 100644
--- a/tests/unit/sagemaker/local/test_local_image.py
+++ b/tests/unit/sagemaker/local/test_local_image.py
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ def test_get_compose_cmd_prefix_with_docker_cli():
     "subprocess.check_output",
     side_effect=subprocess.CalledProcessError(returncode=1, cmd="docker compose version"),
 )
-@patch("sagemaker.local.image.find_executable", Mock(return_value="/usr/bin/docker-compose"))
+@patch("sagemaker.local.image.shutil.which", Mock(return_value="/usr/bin/docker-compose"))
 def test_get_compose_cmd_prefix_with_docker_compose_cli(check_output):
     compose_cmd_prefix = _SageMakerContainer._get_compose_cmd_prefix()
     assert compose_cmd_prefix == ["docker-compose"]
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ def test_get_compose_cmd_prefix_with_docker_compose_cli(check_output):
     "subprocess.check_output",
     side_effect=subprocess.CalledProcessError(returncode=1, cmd="docker compose version"),
 )
-@patch("sagemaker.local.image.find_executable", Mock(return_value=None))
+@patch("sagemaker.local.image.shutil.which", Mock(return_value=None))
 def test_get_compose_cmd_prefix_raises_import_error(check_output):
     with pytest.raises(ImportError) as e:
         _SageMakerContainer._get_compose_cmd_prefix()
diff --git a/tests/unit/sagemaker/local/test_local_utils.py b/tests/unit/sagemaker/local/test_local_utils.py
index 42710b2495..a9aae53fb2 100644
--- a/tests/unit/sagemaker/local/test_local_utils.py
+++ b/tests/unit/sagemaker/local/test_local_utils.py
@@ -85,11 +85,11 @@ def test_move_to_destination_illegal_destination():
 
 
 @patch("sagemaker.local.utils.os.path")
-@patch("sagemaker.local.utils.copy_tree")
+@patch("sagemaker.local.utils.shutil.copytree")
 def test_recursive_copy(copy_tree, m_os_path):
     m_os_path.isdir.return_value = True
     sagemaker.local.utils.recursive_copy("source", "destination")
-    copy_tree.assert_called_with("source", "destination")
+    copy_tree.assert_called_with("source", "destination", dirs_exist_ok=True)
 
 
 @patch("sagemaker.local.utils.os")
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_chainer.py b/tests/unit/test_chainer.py
index 8ad2ae0bab..5c273460ee 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_chainer.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_chainer.py
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
 import logging
 import json
 import os
-from distutils.util import strtobool
 
 import pytest
 from mock import MagicMock, Mock, ANY
@@ -174,7 +173,15 @@ def test_additional_hyperparameters(sagemaker_session, chainer_version, chainer_
         framework_version=chainer_version,
         py_version=chainer_py_version,
     )
-    assert bool(strtobool(chainer.hyperparameters()["sagemaker_use_mpi"]))
+
+    assert chainer.hyperparameters()["sagemaker_use_mpi"].lower() in (
+        "y",
+        "yes",
+        "t",
+        "true",
+        "on",
+        "1",
+    )
     assert int(chainer.hyperparameters()["sagemaker_num_processes"]) == 4
     assert int(chainer.hyperparameters()["sagemaker_process_slots_per_host"]) == 10
     assert (