Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Peer Effects in Prison

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Relative to other industrialized countries or to rates within the United States in the past (measured both in absolute number and as a percentage of populations) the United States incarcerates a great many people. This paper examines one aspect of what happens among populations of incarcerated individuals; namely how inmates affect each other in prison. The investigators use random assignment to cells, identify peer effects in adult prisons, and use the estimates of these effects to model the reduced recidivism that would likely follow from a more efficient cell assignment system. Using a detailed panel data set of state inmates that spans 25 years and conditional random assignment of prisoners to cells inside Kansas prisons, this project studies how peer interactions in prison affect the outcomes of offenders both in prison and after release and how inmate reallocation can effect these outcomes. By estimating statistical models of peer influence, it explores whether grouping inmates with similar histories reinforces disciplinary problems in prison and later criminal activity outside of prison, and whether cellmates and block-mates influence the decision to join prison gangs, use drugs, enroll in education programs, or enroll in rehabilitation programs. Utilizing recent methods on reallocation of individuals across groups in the presence of social spillovers, this project derives optimal cell reassignments and estimates the gains and tradeoffs from reassignment. Recent economic literature has examined the causal effects of peers in various settings including the workplace, neighborhoods, and schools. This is the first attempt to explore peer interactions within adult prison populations. The effects of prison conditions and deterrence have only recently begun to be investigated, and the latest research has established evidence of peer effects in juvenile prisons perpetuating crime after prison. Social multipliers have for some time been hypothesized to be responsible for the high cross-city variance of crime rates in the United States and this study contributes to this literature by examining whether social multipliers in prison perpetuate crime on the streets. The computation of optimal cell assignments is valuable to departments of corrections who endeavor to minimize overall recidivism, prison violence, or drug use, or who aim to maximize participation in education or rehabilitation programs. Since these reallocations leave the set of inmates unchanged, they represent - in principle - implementable policies.