Assessing the Impact of Time in Prison on Recidivism

• In Event: Impact of Sentencing Decisions

Abstract

The United States incarcerates its citizens more than any other industrialized nation thereby garnering the reputation of being a “carceral state”. The over-reliance on incarceration as a mechanism for punishing more serious criminal offenders is intended to prevent future criminal activity. To date there has been limited attention devoted to understanding if longer incarceration lengths serves as a deterrent for future offending. The purpose of this research is to explore the effect of sentence length on recidivism within a two and three year follow-up period for 224,625 felons sentenced to prison in Florida between 2004 and 2011.

Authors

• Jonathan C Reid, Florida State University

• William D Bales, Florida State University