Leave the Door Open? Prison Conditions and Recidivism

Giovanni Mastrobuoni () and Daniele Terlizzese

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 200-233

Abstract: 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 violent and hardened criminals.

JEL-codes: K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: Leave the Door Open? Prison Conditions and Recidivism (2018)
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DOI: 10.1257/app.20190038

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