Evidence emerging from our novel in-prison survey shows that non-criminal legal problems of prison inmates mainly relate to family law matters, contract liability, and administrative procedures. The rate of subjects who face legal issues increases after imprisonment. Employing logit estimation techniques, we test the hypothesis according to which isolation due to imprisonment obstructs legal problem resolution. Results suggest that the open-cell regime has increased the rate of resolution of some family-related problems (divorce and child custody) while not affecting others (legacy issues). Similarly, while common problems with the public administration seem easier to solve under the open-cell regime, those related to contract liability do not. We infer that the open-cell regime may support the resolution of legal problems that usually require standardised approaches. Policy implications supporting the open-cell regime follow.

从我们新颖的监狱调查中得出的证据表明，监狱囚犯的非刑事法律问题主要与家庭法事务、合同责任和行政程序有关。入狱后面临法律问题的受试者比例增加。使用 logit 估计技术，我们根据监禁导致的隔离阻碍了法律问题的解决来检验假设。结果表明，开孔机制提高了一些家庭相关问题（离婚和子女监护权）的解决率，同时不影响其他问题（遗留问题）。同样，虽然公共行政的常见问题在开放式单元制度下似乎更容易解决，但与合同责任相关的问题却并非如此。我们推断，开放单元制度可能支持解决通常需要标准化方法的法律问题。支持开放单元制度的政策含义如下。