With a tip of the hat to Mike Connelly's excellent
Corrections Sentencing blog, which further credits the
Prevention Works blog from the National Crime Prevention Council, we find an intriguing, newly released academic study,
Does Prison Harden Inmates?: A Discontinuity-Based Approach. Examining the effect of prison conditions on recidivism rates, the authors find that "harsher prison conditions lead to significantly more post-release crime."