Porous Prison: A Note on the Rehabilitative Potential of Visits Home

• NCJ Number: 226282
• Journal: The Prison Journal Volume: 89 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2009 Pages: 119-126
• Author(s): Eric P. Baumer; Ian O'Donnell; Nicola Hughes
• Date Published: March 2009
• Length: 8 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined whether prisoners in Ireland who had been allowed leaves from prison to spend time with family, friends, and potential employers were less likely to reoffend than inmates who had not participated in such leaves.

Abstract

The study found that prisoners who were occasionally allowed leaves for vocational or family-related activities were significantly less likely to be reimprisoned than those inmates who had not participated in such leaves. This finding held true up to 4 years after release from prison; however, there are a number of caveats most notably that temporary release was not randomly granted. Prisoners eligible for such leaves may be those least likely to reoffend, thus introducing a selection bias. The fact that the decision about eligibility for a temporary release from prison was not guided by an explicit risk-assessment process prevented an assessment of the significance of this factor. Also, the model used in the study controlled for many of the variables known to be associated with recidivism, such as age, previous experience of incarceration, and offense type, so the effects shown were independent of these factors. In spite of these caveats, however, the findings provide argument against public and official complaints about the risk of temporary release from prison for various community-based vocational and family activities. The study was based on the first-ever national-level recidivism study of Irish prisoners. Specifically, the study examined the relationship between 2 measures of temporary release and future imprisonment for all 19,955 releases from Irish prisons between January 1, 2001, and November 30, 2004. The measures were the number of days in the community during their prison term spending time with family and the number of days in the community for vocational training or seeking employment. 2 tables, 2 figures, and 9 references