American Law and Economics Review Advance Access first published online on June 4, 2007
This version published online on June 12, 2007
American Law and Economics Review, doi:10.1093/aler/ahm006
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Do Harsher Prison Conditions Reduce Recidivism? A Discontinuity-based Approach
Yale University and Cowles Foundation
University of Chicago and NBER
Send correspondence to: M. Keith Chen, Yale School of Management, 135 Prospect Street, PO Box 208200, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; E-mail: keith.chen{at}yale.edu.
JEL Classification: K42, Z13, J62
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Abstract |
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We estimate the causal effect of prison conditions on recidivism rates by exploiting a discontinuity in the assignment of federal prisoners to security levels. Inmates housed in higher security levels are no less likely to recidivate than those housed in minimum security; if anything, our estimates suggest that harsher prison conditions lead to more post-release crime. Though small sample sizes limit the precision of our estimates, we argue that our findings may have important implications for prison policy, and that our methodology is likely to be applicable beyond the particular context we study.
Earlier versions of this article circulated under the title "Does Prison Harden Inmates? A Discontinuity-based Approach." We are extremely grateful for data and helpful conversations to Scott Camp, Gerry Gaes, Miles Harer, Neal Langan, Bo Saylor, and their colleagues at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, ffice of Research and Evaluation. e thank Dan Benjamin, Judy Chevalier, John Donohue, Ray Fair, Matthew Gentzkow, Edward Glaeser, Claudia Goldin, Larry Katz, David Laibson, Steve Levitt, Ilyana Kuziemko, Emily Oster, Sharon Oster, Anne Piehl, Jim Ware and workshop participants at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Ohio State University, the Yale School of Management, and Yale ISPS for feedback on earlier drafts. John Donohue, the editor, and two anonymous referees provided especially helpful comments.
The spelling of Levitt's first name (from Stephen to Steven) has been corrected in the reference section for "Katz, Levitt, and Shustorovich (2003)" and for "Levitt (1998)".