Breaking Out of Prisons

Abstract

There are two general questions to be asked about research evaluation reports of the kind presented in “Using Early Release to Relieve Prison Crowding.” The first is, “What are the specific findings and how adequate was the methodology by which they were obtained?” The second, larger query centers on the broader significance of the results. The latter question is concerned with the policy implications that ought to be drawn from the research. Although I want to touch upon both of these matters in this relatively brief commentary, it is to the second question that most of my remarks speak.