Roberto Galbiati - From Doing Time to Doing Better: How Activities in Prison Shape Inmates’ Outcomes

Seminars - Development Labor Political Economy - DLPE
Speakers
Roberto Galbiati, Sciences Po
12:30pm - 1:45pm
Alberto Alesina Seminar Room 5.e4.sr04 - floor 5 - via Roentgen 1

Abstract: We study how participation in work, education, religious, and other supervised activities as well as visits from family and other relations during incarceration affects both misconduct in prison and recidivism after release. We use administrative data covering all individuals released from French prisons between 2016 and 2022. To identify causal effects, we exploit within-individual variation in access to supervised activities across incarceration spells, using a set of instruments based on facilitylevel offers. We find that participation in work programs significantly reduces both reoffending and in-prison misconduct; education programs have more modest effects. Our results suggest that improved mental health and increased post-release employability help explain the reduction in recidivism. Finally, by comparing different allocations of prison work hours and supervised activities, we provide an estimate of the potential reduction in recidivism and misconduct achievable under constant resource constraints

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