Maxing Out in Prison: A Study of Pre-Release Long-Term Prisoners

• In Event: On the Way Out: Re-Entry and Post Release Experiences

Abstract

In jurisdictions with discretionary types of early release, some prisoners get out early, whereas others stay in prison until they have served their entire sentence. Research has focused much attention on those who obtain early release (be it called parole, conditional release or otherwise), on parole decision-making and the variables and factors that matter in obtaining early release. Interestingly, when it comes to those who ‘max out’ from or in prison, criminological research has mostly neglected this group and why they served their full sentence behind bars. The paucity of research about max out prisoners paves the way for unfounded assumptions, ideas and beliefs about prisoners that max out (e.g. maxing out as a prisoner choice, with the intent to commit new offenses).
In this presentation, results are presented of a study that reverses scientific attention and that zooms in on those maxing out. The research addresses the following central question: why are some long-term prisoners maxing out in (a) prison (in Belgium)? Based on qualitative data of a group of long-term prisoners (including interviews, release applications, prison files) and on additional quantitative data, answers are provided about why some prisoners max out while others don’t.

Author

• Luc Robert, National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC)