Does Work Release Work?∗

United States prisons release more than 600,000 individuals each year. Within three years of release, 50 percent of released prisoners are back in prison. Work release has the potential to serve as a structured re-entry into the mainstream labor market. In an economic model of crime, an improvement in legal labor market opportunities should reduce criminal activity. After using a variety of econometric techniques to address the non-random selection of inmates into work release, I find that inmates who participate in work release have better post-prison employment outcomes. These positive effects are largest in the first year following release, but persist for at least three years. The earnings of work release participants are 30 to 40 percent higher than the earnings of non-participants, but the increased propensity to work explains much of this earnings differential. I also find that the labor market gains do not necessarily translate into reduced recidivism. The reduction in recidivism is dependent on the types of crimes offenders committed. Better labor market opportunities reduce recidivism for those convicted of income generating offenses, but have no impact on offenders who committed non-economically motivated crimes. ∗Special thanks to John Tyler for support and advice. Anna Aizer, Ken Chay, Yona Rubinstein, and the participants of the Brown University Micro Lunch series provided many helpful suggestions. Thanks also to Tom Zaccardi and David Tune for their knowledge of the Florida Work Release Program. †Brown University, Box B, 64 Waterman Street, Providence, RI, 02912, United States; Jillian [email protected]