| Abstract: | It is argued widely that an inmate's behavior while in prison is not related to his or her behavior after release. This putative lack of a relation is a point set forth in debates about discretionary release from prison by parole boards. This article reviews the empirical status of the prison behavior and release performance controversy and offers new data from the federal jurisdiction. The results indicate that there is some relation between officially recorded institutional infractions and post-release infractions, once controls for a priori risk are established. The fact that some post-sentencing information may be related to behavior after prison raises difficult policy issues that are not addressed by the common assertion of no relationship. Among these issues are the propriety and fairness of predictive judgments per se, the proper locus of authority for release decision making, and alternative uses of predictive information in corrections. The findings here suggest that more intensive study of the relation between prison behavior and release performance is required. |
