Leave the Door Open? Prison Conditions and Recidivismt

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mastrobuoni, Giovannni; Terlizzese, Daniele
• 署名单位: Collegio Carlo Alberto; European Central Bank; Bank of Italy
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20190038
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 200-233
• 关键词: incarceration; imprisonment; EMPLOYMENT; crime

摘要

We estimate the effect on recidivism of replacing time served in a common closed-cell prison with time served in an open-cell one. We deal with the endogenous assignment of inmates to different prison regimes using variation that is driven by nearby prisons' overcrowd-ing. Switching regimes for a year reduces recidivism by around 6 percentage points. The effects are largest for inmates with low levels of education and are weak for violent and hardened criminals. (JEL K14, K42)