Title: Do Prisons Make Us Safer? - Scientific American
Headings: Do Prisons Make Us Safer?
Do Prisons Make Us Safer?
New research shows that prisons prevent far less violent crime than you might think
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Content: The experience of imprisonment could deter someone from committing crimes to avoid prison in the future. Prison might provide opportunities for rehabilitation, such as drug and alcohol treatment, education, or counseling. And, at the very least, someone who is in prison cannot commit a crime in the community, an effect criminologists call “incapacitation.” Advertisement
Yet there are also good reasons to believe that prisons might actually increase crime. The harsh prison environment could exacerbate mental health problems, make people more prone to aggression, or make them cynical and distrustful of the legal system. Prisons could isolate prisoners from friends and family who might help them find jobs eventually. Or prisoners may learn from other prisoners how to be better criminals. To examine how prison affects violent crime, our study compared people sentenced to prison to those sentenced to probation supervision in the community, using data on all individuals sentenced for a felony in Michigan between 2003 and 2006. They were followed through 2015 to track convictions for violent crimes. The study focused on people who had committed a violent crime and were eligible for both prison or probation sentences.