Do Better Prisons Reduce Recidivism? Evidence from a Prison Construction Program
Open accessAbstract
From the US to Colombia, from India to Uganda, many inmates suffer from underprovision of services such as surveillance or rehabilitation in overcrowded prisons. Yet, we know little about how prison quality affects long-term inmate outcomes. I study a prison construction program in Colombia and find t hat quasi-random assignment of inmates to less crowded, and higher service facilities reduced recidivism. Criminal capital is an important mechanism. Less crowded and better service facilities are associated with a lower level of unsupervised criminal contact within prisons. The program led to substantial welfare gains, even when assuming a low social cost per crime.
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Tobón (2020) shows that exogenous assignment to newer Colombian prisons substantially reduces recidivism.
“Tobón (2020) shows that exogenous assignment of inmates from older to newer Colombian prisons-which are less crowded and offer better conditions, services, and rehabilitation programs-substantially reduce recidivism.”
From Prison Rehabilitation Programs: Efficiency and Targeting (2021) · cites this paper as Tobón (2020)
Prison conditions may in part determine the effect of incarceration on rehabilitation.
“and that prison conditions may in part determine this effect (Lotti, 2020; Mastrobuoni and Terlizzese, 2019; Tobón, 2020).”
From Prison Rehabilitation Programs: Efficiency and Targeting (2021) · cites this paper as Tobón, 2020
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Prison Rehabilitation Programs: Efficiency and Targeting
Arbour, W., Lacroix, G., & Marchand, S. (2021) · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3761992 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
- Authors
- Tobon, S.
- ORCID
- Tobon, Santiago
- Venue
- The Review of Economics and Statistics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020
- Volume
- 104
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1256-1272
- ISSN
- 0034-6535 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3122452983
- Cited by
- 43
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 3.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- The Review of Economics and Statistics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Keywords
- recidivism, prison construction, prison overcrowding, criminal capital, rehabilitation programs, prison experience, Colombia
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