Imprisonment fails to deter future drug offending across all racial groups

Evidence

Of the relatively few rigorous studies that measure the effect of more punitive drug sanctions on subsequent drug offending (Green & Winik, 2010; Mitchell, Cochran, Mears, & Bales, 2017; Spohn & Holleran, 2002), none found a specific deterrent effect. All three of these studies compared the recidivism of drug offenders who received terms of imprisonment to those who did not. The Green and Winik (2010) and Mitchell et al. (2017) studies found that formerly imprisoned drug offenders had recidivism rates no different than drug offenders who received less severe, community-based punishments. The third study by Spohn and Holleran (2002) found that formerly imprisoned drug offenders recidivated more often and sooner than drug offenders who had not been imprisoned. Mitchell and colleagues (2017) also found that imprisonment for drug offending did not have meaningful specific deterrent effects on the recidivism of White, Black, or Hispanic offenders. Simply stated, there is no evidence that either more punitive drug sanctions or prison sentences achieved the stated goal of specific deterrence. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1078

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Directly connects to the book’s overarching argument about racial disparities in criminal justice; the finding that imprisonment either does nothing or increases recidivism is a central empirical pillar.
• SEED: Article angle: ‘the prison sentence as criminogenic treatment’ — three rigorous studies, zero specific deterrence, one showing increased recidivism, raising the question of what prison is for if not deterrence.

Related

• More punitive drug sanctions fail to deter subsequent drug offending (similarity 0.92)
• Drug enforcement intensity, not offending, drives racial disparities in sanctions (similarity 0.82)
• Punitive drug policies failed in purpose yet harmed Black life chances (similarity 0.81)
• Drug-offense racial disparities resist explanation by actual offending differences (similarity 0.81)
• The War on Drugs amplified but did not create drug imprisonment disparities. (similarity 0.81)
• Punitive drug sanctions may backfire by destroying desistance-promoting social opportunities (similarity 0.81)
• The War on Drugs did not create but vastly amplified existing racial disparities (similarity 0.80)
• Post-2000s drug incarceration racial disparities contracted as Black arrests fell (similarity 0.80)
• Racial incarceration disparities persist even after controlling for arrest rates (similarity 0.80)
• Certainty of apprehension deters drug crime but severity of punishment does not (similarity 0.79)