Leave the Door Open? Prison Conditions and Recidivism

Giovanni Mastrobuoni () and Daniele Terlizzese

No 580, Carlo Alberto Notebooks from Collegio Carlo Alberto

Abstract: The question of how prison conditions affect recidivism is very important. In designing a prison system, one would want to know the answer. 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’ overcrowding. 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 hardened criminals.

Keywords: Crime; Prison Conditions; Deterrence; Rehabilitation; Open Prison. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: pages 63
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Leave the Door Open? Prison Conditions and Recidivism (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cca:wpaper:580

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