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The theory behind that strategy is that capacity determines imprisonment rates, i.e. overcapacity will eventually be filled. This may be so. But will the lack of prison cells change the sentencing behavior of judges? Waiting lists  as an alternative to overcrowding were practiced for quite a while in the Netherlands (before reductionism was swept away by a new prison building boom). Publishing and comparing imprisonment rates can serve as a tool for shaming high-incarceration countries. A modern version of quantitative reductionism is the movement for "justice reinvestment" ( Chris Fox, Kevin Albertson, Kevin Wong 2013). Here the focus is explicitely on re-directing the funds spent on prisons in a more reasonable direction (community alternatives, education). "The question should be 'What can be done to strengthen the capacity of high incarceration neighborhoods to keep their residents out of prison?' not "Where should we send this individual'" (Tucker/Cadora 2003).

Obviously, these strategies are not mutually exclusive. They will have to be combined with "Anti-Funktionsarbeit" (Mathiesen 1989, 168 ff), i.e. creating a public discourse about the explicit and implicit functions of prisons. And they need to link up with existing movements for restorative justice. This is exactly what Fay Honey Knopp and her co-abolitionists had in mind, witzh explicit reference to Thomas Mathiesen:

"We have structured an attrition model as one example of a long range process for abolition.'Attrition', which means the rubbing away or wearing down by friction, reflects the persistent and continuing strategy necessary to diminish the function and power of prisons in our society.To clarify our terms, the reforms we recommend are "abolishing-type" reforms: those that do not add improvement to or legitimize the prevailing system. We also call for partial abolitions of the system: abolishing certain criminal laws, abolishing bail and pretrial detention and abolishing indeterminate sentences and parole" (Morris 1976, ch.3).