Abstract

While in prison, incarcerated persons can be subjected to qualitatively different conditions of confinement ranging from minimum to maximum security settings. In this study, we use data on 17,542 incarcerated men to assess whether the relationship between visitation and recidivism varies across the types of settings (i.e. minimum, medium, close, and maximum custody units) in which individuals are housed and receive their visits. We find that the relationship between prison visitation and rearrest varies across conditions of confinement, and that this association is highly attenuated for individuals confined in close and maximum security units. We also find that these patterns are robust to alternate various measures of recidivism (reconviction and return to prison) and visitation (frequency and timing). These results raise questions about the nature and effectiveness of visitation in highly restrictive settings, and suggest that an ecological framework should be applied to future studies of prison visitation and recidivism.

摘要

在监狱中，被监禁的人可能会受到质量不同的监禁条件，从最低安全设置到最高安全设置。在这项研究中，我们使用 17,542 名被监禁男性的数据来​​评估探视与累犯之间的关系是否因个人被安置和接受探视的环境类型（即最小、中等、封闭和最大监护单位）而异。我们发现监狱探视和重新逮捕之间的关系因监禁条件而异，并且这种关联对于被限制在密切和最高安全单位的个人而言高度减弱。我们还发现，这些模式对于交替使用各种累犯措施（重新定罪和返回监狱）和探视（频率和时间）是稳健的。