The Effect of Parole Board Racial Composition on Prisoner Outcomes

Julia Godfrey (), Kegon Tan and Mariyana Zapryanova ()
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Julia Godfrey: University of Rochester
Mariyana Zapryanova: Smith College

No 2023-011, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: Parole is a major part of a prisoner's interaction with the criminal justice system, and is linked to long-run prisoner outcomes. Using data from the state of Georgia, we exploit the fact that prisoners are randomly allocated to parole board members to recover the effect of parole board racial composition on prisoner outcomes. We find that a higher proportion of Black members on the parole board is associated with better parole outcomes and lower 3-year recidivism rates for Black prisoners. Further, we document that the Black-White gap in parole violation rates, conditional on measures of parole success, closes when the parole board gains a Black member. Taken together, we argue that this is consistent with a reduction in discrimination against Black inmates with regard to parole decisions.

Keywords: prison release; parole board; racial bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H76 K40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-ure
Note: MIP
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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Godfre ... risoner-outcomes.pdf First version, February 14, 2023 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hka:wpaper:2023-011

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