ABSTRACT: Scholars have proposed that incarceration rates might be reduced by a requirement that judges justify incarceration decisions with respect to their expected operational costs (e.g., prison capacity). In a vignette-based experiment (N = 214), we tested this prediction by examining whether criminal punishment judgments (prison vs. probation) among university undergraduates would be influenced by a requirement to provide a justification for one’s judgment, and by a brief message describing prison capacity costs. We found that (1) the justification prompt alone was sufficient to reduce incarceration rates, (2) the prison capacity message also independently reduced incarceration rates, and (3) incarceration rates were most strongly reduced (by about 25%) when decision makers were asked to justify their sentences with respect to the expected capacity costs. These effects survived a test of robustness and occurred regardless of whether participants reported that prison costs should influence judgments of incarceration. These findings are important for policymakers attempting to manage high incarceration rates.