Scholars and policymakers have called for greater attention to understanding the causes of and solutions to improved prisoner reentry outcomes, resulting in renewed attention to a factor—prison visitation—long believed to reduce recidivism. However, despite the theoretical arguments advanced on its behalf and increased calls for evidence-based policy, there remains little credible empirical research on whether a beneficial relationship between visitation and recidivism in fact exists. Against that backdrop, this study employs propensity score matching analyses to examine whether visitation of various types and in varying amounts, or “doses,” is in fact negatively associated with recidivism outcomes among a cohort of released prisoners. The analyses suggest that visitation has a small to modest effect in reducing recidivism of all types, especially property offending, and that the effects may be most pronounced for spouse or significant other visitation. We discuss the implications of the findings for rese...

/pdf/prison-visitation-and-recidivism-4ra98vvg9b.pdf

Prison Visitation and Recidivism

Social Isolation and Inmate Behavior: A Conceptual Framework for Theorizing Prison Visitation and Guiding and Assessing Research

This paper suggests that although carceral space seems to be sharply demarcated from the outside world, the prison wall is in fact more porous than might be assumed. The paper critiques Goffman’s theory of the ‘total institution’ by deploying a geographical engagement with liminality to theorise prison visiting rooms as spaces in which prisoners come face-to-face with persons and objects which come from and represent their lives on the ‘outside’. Drawing on a specific empirical example from recent research into imprisonment in the contemporary Russian prison system, it uses the example of visiting suites designed for long term ‘residential’ visits to explore the ways in which visiting spaces act as a space of betweenness where a metaphorical threshold-crossing takes place between outside and inside. The paper specifically explores the expression of that betweenness in the materiality of visiting, and in the destabilisation of rules and identities in visiting space. It contests the sense of linear transformation with which liminal spaces have previously been associated, suggesting that rather than spaces of linear transition from one state to another, liminal spaces can constitute a frustratingly repetitive, static or equilibriating form of transformation which is cumulative rather than immediate, and relates this suggestion to the wider study of prison visitation.

Between outside and inside? Prison visiting rooms as liminal carceral spaces

Objectives:Drawing on theories that emphasize the salience of social ties, this study examines the different kinds of experiences prisoners have with visitation and the implications of those experiences for behavior after release.Method:This study uses data from a release cohort of prisoners to (1) explore how visitation experiences unfold for different cohorts of individuals serving different amounts of time in prison and to (2) test the effects of longitudinal visitation patterns on recidivism.Results:Findings suggest that individuals who maintain connections with their social networks outside of prison have lower rates of reoffending and that the timing and consistency with which visitation occurs also affect criminal behavior. Specifically, prisoners who are visited early and who experience a sustained pattern of visitation are less likely to recidivate.Conclusion:These findings underscore the importance of social ties for understanding the prisoner experience and its implications for offending. More ...

Breaches in the Wall: Imprisonment, Social Support, and Recidivism

Investing in education: combating educational disadvantage.

As prison populations increase, the need for successful reintegration of ex-prisoners becomes more pressing. The challenge of what has become known as `re-entry' has stimulated an extensive body of research, much of it concentrated in a small number of jurisdictions and concerned with levels and predictors of recidivism. The limited geographic breadth of the research effort has hindered our capacity to consider theoretically relevant questions, such as whether particular societal conditions thought to be conducive to successful prisoner reintegration (e.g. high levels of social capital and informal social control) in fact translate into lower levels of recidivism. In this article we expand the reach of existing research by exploring levels and patterns of recidivism in uncharted territory—the Republic of Ireland—and by drawing out the implications of the patterns observed there for comparative analysis.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1748895808088991

Recidivism in the Republic of Ireland

A follow-up study of 19,955 releases from Irish prisons shows interesting variation in rates of recidivism. Prisoners who, during their sentences, were occasionally allowed to venture outside for vocational or family-related purposes were significantly less likely to be reimprisoned. This held true up to 4 years after their eventual release and is a clear empirical demonstration of the benefits, other than humanitarian, of maintaining prisoners' social capital.

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

Ten years ago a special issue of the Irish Criminal Law Journal examined the relationship between crime and poverty. It contained contributions from two of the current authors. Their overall conclusions were stark: Irish prisons are clogged up with members of the lower socio-economic groups and in the Dublin District Court, at least, a disproportionate risk of imprisonment is faced by defendants from the most deprived areas. Due to the limitations of available data, it was not possible to explore where prisoners went after release, and the extent to which the burden of resettlement was evenly spread across the country.

When prisoners go home: punishment, social deprivation and the geography of reintegration.

As prison populations increase, the need for successful reintegration of ex-prisoners becomes more pressing. The challenge of what has become known as ‘re-entry’ has stimulated an extensive body of research, much of it concentrated in a small number of jurisdictions and concerned with levels and predictors of recidivism. The limited geographic breadth of the research effort has hindered our capacity to consider theoretically relevant questions, such as whether particular societal conditions thought to be conducive to successful prisoner reintegration (e.g. high levels of social capital and informal social control) in fact translate into lower levels of recidivism. In this article we expand the reach of existing research by exploring levels and patterns of recidivism in uncharted territory - the Republic of Ireland - and by drawing out the implications of the patterns observed there for comparative analysis.

Recurrent painful ophthalmoplegic neuropathy (RPON) replaced the term 'ophthalmoplegic migraine' as the condition behaves more like an inflammatory cranial neuropathy than a primary headache disorder. RPON may be associated with cranial nerve thickening on MR imaging and persistent oculomotor paresis. Oculomotor tumours have rarely been described in cases of relapsing painful ophthalmoplegia with and without persistent paresis. Here, we present a case of relapsing painful left ophthalmoplegia that gradually became persistent. MR imaging after 14 years of symptoms revealed an enhancing tumour of the left oculomotor nerve. It is unclear whether the tumour was the cause of the attacks or whether repeated cycles could lead to tumour development. MR imaging is indicated in patients with RPON who develop persistent deficits to screen for associated oculomotor tumour.

Nicola Hughes

Papers

Recidivism in the Republic of Ireland

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

When prisoners go home: punishment, social deprivation and the geography of reintegration.

Recidivism in the Republic of Ireland

A Case of Recurrent Painful Ophthalmoplegic Neuropathy with Associated Oculomotor Nerve Tumour.