Associations between working and educational experiences during deprivation of liberty and prison recidivism

This essay investigates the impact of inmate’s work and educational programs on recidivism. It investigates recidivism rates over a period of nearly five years for 21.274 prisoners released from Santa Catarina prisons in 2013 and 2014. Three methods were used to analyze recidivism and to control for self-selection bias and non-observable heterogeneity: the propensity score matching (PSM), the Cox and Frailty models with reduced samples. For those who participated in the programs 90 days or more, the Frailty model with a reduced sample indicated that program participation reduced the odds of recidivism in 14% and 32%, respectively for work and educational activities. Therefore, this study suggested that there are programs being executed in Santa Catarina that may effectively impact prisoner´s rehabilitation.