IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mib/wpaper/433.html

Does the “Open- Cell Regime” foster Inmates’ Legal Capability? Evidence from two Italian Prisons

Author

Listed:
  • Lucia Dalla Pellegrina
  • Margherita Saraceno

Abstract

This study is a first attempt to map non-criminal legal needs of prisoners by means of a peer-setting survey. The investigation has been carried out in 2014 in two Italian prisons. Evidence shows that prisoners’ legal needs are mainly related to family law matters, property law issues and administrative procedures, including release and renewal of documents. We test the general hypothesis according to which imprisonment by itself represents a recurrent cause to give up trying to solve legal problems. We focus, in particular, on the introduction of the open-cell regime to identify the effects of isolation due to imprisonment on the frequency of problem resolution. We also investigate how inmates’ specific characteristics (being a foreigner or waiting for a first-instance judgment), on the one hand, and prison-specific characteristics, on the other hand, affect the capacity of prisoners to manage their pending legal issues (legal capability). This contributes to debate about detention conditions as an important part of European Union justice policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucia Dalla Pellegrina & Margherita Saraceno, 2020. "Does the “Open- Cell Regime” foster Inmates’ Legal Capability? Evidence from two Italian Prisons," Working Papers 433, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2020.
    • Handle: RePEc:mib:wpaper:433
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.dems.unimib.it/repec/pdf/mibwpaper433.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francesco Drago & Roberto Galbiati & Pietro Vertova, 2011. "Prison Conditions and Recidivism," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 13(1), pages 103-130.
    2. Giovanni Mastrobuoni & Daniele Terlizzese, 2014. "Harsh or Human? Detention Conditions and Recidivism," EIEF Working Papers Series 1413, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised May 2018.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Entorf, Horst & Sattarova, Liliya, 2016. "The Analysis of Prison-Prisoner Data Using Cluster-Sample Econometrics: Prison Conditions and Prisoners' Assessments of the Future," IZA Discussion Papers 10209, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Joshua Hall & Kaitlyn Harger & Dean Stansel, 2015. "Economic Freedom and Recidivism: Evidence from US States," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 21(2), pages 155-165, May.
    3. Benjamin Monnery, 2015. "The determinants of recidivism among ex-prisoners: a survival analysis on French data," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 37-56, February.
    4. Michael A Ruderman & Deirdra F Wilson & Savanna Reid, 2015. "Does Prison Crowding Predict Higher Rates of Substance Use Related Parole Violations? A Recurrent Events Multi-Level Survival Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-19, October.
    5. Kegon Teng Kok Tan & Mariyana Zapryanova, 2019. "The Role of Prison in Recidivism," Working Papers 2019-083, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    6. Monnery, Benjamin & Wolff, François-Charles & Henneguelle, Anaïs, 2020. "Prison, semi-liberty and recidivism: Bounding causal effects in a survival model," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Entorf, Horst, 2012. "Expected recidivism among young offenders: Comparing specific deterrence under juvenile and adult criminal law," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 414-429.
    8. Giulia Lotti, 2022. "Tough on Young Offenders: Harmful or Helpful?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(4), pages 1276-1310.
    9. Giovanni Mastrobuoni & Daniele Terlizzese, 2022. "Leave the Door Open? Prison Conditions and Recidivism," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 200-233, October.
    10. Aline Désesquelles & Annie Kensey & Laurent Toulemon, 2019. "Beneficial effect of adjusted sentences on recidivism in France: investigating the hidden role of the judge," Working Papers 248, French Institute for Demographic Studies.
    11. Lotti, Giulia, "undated". "Tough on young offenders : harmful or helpful?," Economic Research Papers 269320, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    12. Roee Sarel, 2022. "Crime and punishment in times of pandemics," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 155-186, October.
    13. Francesco Drago & Roberto Galbiati, 2012. "Indirect Effects of a Policy Altering Criminal Behavior: Evidence from the Italian Prison Experiment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 199-218, April.
    14. Nadia Campaniello & Theodoros M. Diasakos & Giovanni Mastrobuoni, 2017. "Rationalizable Suicides: Evidence from Changes in Inmates’ Expected Length of Sentence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 388-428.
    15. Francesco Drago & Roberto Galbiati, 2014. "Deterrent Effect of Imprisonment," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) hal-03259811, HAL.
    16. Steeve Marchand & Guy Lacroix & William Arbour, 2023. "Prison rehabilitation programs and recidivism: evidence from variations in availability," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2023n07, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    17. Libor Dušek & Christian Traxler, 2024. "Swiftness and Delay of Punishment," Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers 0032, Berlin School of Economics.
    18. Meier, Armando N. & Levav, Jonathan & Meier, Stephan, 2020. "Early Release and Recidivism," IZA Discussion Papers 13035, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Basili, Marcello & Belloc, Filippo, 2021. "The deterrent effect of “Vehicular Homicide Laws”: Microeconometric evidence from Italy," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    20. Papaioannou, Elias & Karatza, Stavroula, 2018. "The Greek Justice System: Collapse and Reform," CEPR Discussion Papers 12731, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mib:wpaper:433. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Matteo Pelagatti (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dpmibit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.