美国监狱中“行之有效”：IGNITE 计划对不当行为与再犯的影响
“Something Works” in U.S. Jails: Misconduct and Recidivism Effects of the IGNITE Program
Quarterly Journal of Economics · 2025 · [{"name": "Marcella Alsan", "affiliation": ["National Bureau of Economic Research", "Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center"]}, {"name": "Arkey Barnett", "affiliation": ["University of Michigan"]}, {"name": "Peter Hull", "affiliation": ["National Bureau of Economic Research", "John Brown University"]}, {"name": "Crystal Yang", "affiliation": ["National Bureau of Economic Research", "Brooklyn Law School"]}]
中文摘要
摘要：美国惩教政策中一个长期存在且具有影响力的观点认为，在改造被监禁人员方面“什么办法都不奏效”。我们通过研究密歇根州弗林特县监狱启动的一项由执法部门主导的创新项目——通过教育自然且有意地促进囚犯成长（Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally through Education, IGNITE）——重新审视这一假说。我们构建了一种工具变量方法，利用准随机的法院延迟（这些延迟导致个人在项目启动前后在监狱中停留更长时间）来估计接触 IGNITE 的影响。在固定监禁时间的情况下，我们发现，每多接触 IGNITE 一个月，狱内每周违规行为减少25%，三个月内的再犯率降低24%，且再犯效应随时间推移而增强。对工作人员和社区成员的调查，连同行政考试成绩记录和狱内短信记录表明，文化变化以及读写和算术能力的提高是其中起作用的机制。
Abstract
Abstract A long-standing and influential view in U.S. correctional policy is that “nothing works” when it comes to rehabilitating incarcerated individuals. We revisit this hypothesis by studying an innovative law-enforcement-led program launched in the county jail of Flint, MI: Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally through Education (IGNITE). We develop an instrumental variables approach to estimate the effects of IGNITE exposure, leveraging quasi-random court delays that cause individuals to spend more time in jail before and after the program’s launch. Holding time in jail fixed, we find that one additional month of IGNITE exposure reduces weekly misconduct in jail by 25% and three-month recidivism by 24%, with the recidivism effects growing over time. Surveys of staff and community members, along with administrative test-score records and within-jail text messages, suggest that cultural change and improved literacy and numeracy scores are contributing mechanisms.