Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Do rehabilitative prison policies work? Evidence from a natural experiment in the Dominican Republic

由于社会成本高和人力资本损失，出狱者的高犯罪率引起决策者的极大关注。 尽管存在这些担忧，但经济学家并不理解累犯增加的原因。 因此，了解累犯的根源将有助于经济科学以及制定减少累犯的政策。 这篇博士论文的研究项目将调查康复监狱是否会降低监狱释放人员的累犯率和劳动力市场参与率。 该项目还将调查囚犯一旦被监狱条件改造后，在获释后如何适应和影响其社区。本研究将使用实验方法和两种替代性监狱制度-传统惩罚制度和现代改造制度-的数据，为这些问题提供经验证据。PI可以获得关于从传统监狱和改造监狱释放的囚犯的独特数据集。 本研究项目的成果将有助于制定政策，使美国的惩教系统更有效率，从而建立美国作为全球领先的刑罚改革。本博士论文研究项目将研究康复性监狱对再犯率的影响，监狱释放人员的劳动力市场依恋，以及释放人员如何为社会做出贡献。PI可以访问从传统监狱和改造监狱释放的囚犯的数据集。 该研究将使用两个准实验研究设计项目来确定因果参数。第一个项目采用工具变量方法，比较随机分配给法官的不同偏好的监禁和监狱类型的个人，以确定监禁在惩罚性监狱或改造性监狱对累犯的因果关系，以及它们之间的差异。第二个项目采用差异中的差异估计战略，利用改造性监狱的差异推出，以确定额外改造时间的长期影响。与剩余刑期较长的人相比，同时被引入改造性监狱的剩余刑期较短的人是一种反事实，因为监狱根据许多因素将个人分为同质群体，但不是时间。 这两组估计数将为大规模监狱改革对累犯的影响提供有力的证据。这一信息对美国政策制定者和监狱官员非常重要，因为他们应对大规模的监禁人口和当前系统的感知失败。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

High crime rates among those released from prison is of great concern among policy makers because of high social cost and loss of human capital. Despite these concerns, economists do not understand the sources of increased recidivism. Understanding the sources of recidivism will therefore contribute to economic science as well as the formulation of policies to reduce recidivism. This doctoral dissertation research project will investigate whether rehabilitative prisons reduce the rates of recidivism and labor-market participation of prison releasees. The project will also investigate how prisoners, once transformed by their prison conditions, fit into, and affect their communities when they are released. The research will use experimental methods and data from two alternative prison systems---the traditional punitive system and a modern rehabilitative system---to provide empirical evidence on these questions. The PIs have access to unique data sets on prisoners released from traditional prisons and rehabilitative prisons. The results of this research project will contribute to the development of policies to make the U.S. correctional system more efficient and therefore establish the US as a global leader in penal reforms.This doctoral dissertation research project will study the effects of rehabilitative prisons on recidivism rates, labor market attachment of prison releasees, and how releasees contribute to their societies. The PIs have access data sets of prisoners released from traditional and rehabilitative prison. The research will use two quasi-experimental research design projects to identify causal parameters. The first project uses instrumental variables approach to compare individuals randomly assigned to judges with varying preferences for incarceration and prison type to identify the causal effect of incarceration in punitive prisons or rehabilitative prisons on recidivism, and the difference between them. The second project uses a differences-in-differences estimation strategy that exploits the differential rollout of rehabilitative prisons to identify the long-term effects of additional rehabilitative time. Individuals introduced into rehabilitative prisons at the same time with remaining short sentences serve as a counterfactual to those with long remaining sentences because the prisons sort individuals into homogeneous groups across many factors, but not time. Both sets of estimates will provide rigorous evidence on the effects of large-scale prison reform on recidivism. This information is important for US policymakers and prison official as they respond to large-scale incarcerated population and the perceived failure of the current system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.