Incarceration and Recidivism

From 1930 to 1972, the United States experienced a relatively stable incarceration rate that hovered between 93 and 137 inmates per 100,000 individuals in the population (Blumstein & Beck, 1999). However, since the early 1970s, the United States has been in an era of mass incarceration, with currently more than 1.6 million Americans serving time in a state or federal prison (West & Sabol, 2009). If one adds to this the more than 785,000 individuals incarcerated in local jails, the number of people currently behind bars is a staggering 2.3 million people with the figure rising each successive year (Minton & Sabol, 2009). This sanction has become so pronounced that since 1972, there has been an unprecedented 600 percent increase in the number of individuals locked up, with more people currently incarcerated than working at both McDonald's and Wal-Mart combined worldwide (Nellis & King, 2009; Pager, 2007). Notably, this massive explosion in the inmate population has been a uniquely American phenomenon making the United States the largest incarcerator in the world with an imprisonment rate of 760 per 100,000 population (World Prison Brief, 2008).

In light of this expansion, various scholars have sought to explain this massive increase in the use of incarceration in the United States. However, even though one in every 99.1 adults is currently behind bars, much less research has been done on the impact that incarceration has on the post-release criminal behavior of individual offenders (Warren, 2008). Since such a massive number of people are incarcerated, it is imperative to understand how this sanction impacts an individual's future criminal behavior. This entry discusses this limited body of research in three sections. First, the three competing perspectives that have been utilized to explain the effect of imprisonment on future criminal behavior are presented. Of these perspectives, one, specific deterrence, argues imprisonment will lead to a reduction in an offender's criminal behavior, while the other two, the “schools of crime” and labeling perspectives, contend that imprisonment has an iatrogenic effect on offenders. Second, the extent to which released state and federal prisoners are rearrested, reconvicted, and/or re-imprisoned after release is discussed. This research shows that recidivism is quite high among releasees reaching rates well above 60 percent. Third, the findings from the existing empirical research analyzing the association between imprisonment and recidivism are also presented. This empirical research can be classified into three distinct categories. First, many studies have compared similar individuals sentenced to custodial sanctions versus non-custodial sanctions and their subsequent criminal behavior. Second, analyses have been conducted to assess the impact that serving a longer versus shorter sentence in prison has on recidivism. And third, researchers have investigated the effect that serving time in a prison with harsher versus less harsh prison conditions has on post-release criminal behavior. Findings from each of the three categories of empirical research are discussed in order to gain a thorough [Page 466]understanding of the effect that imprisonment has on an individual's criminal behavior after release.