Overview of: “Too early is too Soon

• Author: Jeffrey W. Rosky,Kevin A. Wright
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2011.00764.x
• Published date: 01 November 2011
• Date: 01 November 2011

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

MONTANA EARLY RELEASE PROGRAM

Overview of: “Too early is too Soon

Lessons from the Montana Department of Corrections Early

Release Program”

Kevin A. Wright

Arizona State University

Jerey W.Rosky

University of Central Florida

Research Summary

Early release procedures will likely become increasingly necessary during a time of fiscal

uncertainty in corrections. To date, however, few empirical evaluations exist in the

literature to guide correctional administrators in making these potentially unpopular

decisions. The failure to appreciate fully the consequences of early releasefor the criminal

justice system (as well as for the general public) could lead to unintended consequences

in the form of increased costs and a potential decrease in public safety. The current

study seeks to build on the limited information available by evaluating the effectiveness

of releasing offenders early in Montana in an attempt to mitigate a budget deficit. The

results indicate that offenders released early from a prison setting were more likely to

recidivate (and to do so more quickly) than a matched group of offenders experiencing

a traditional parole release from prison. Offenders released early from a community

setting were somewhat less likely to recidivate than a matched group of offenders

experiencing a traditional parole release from the community. Based on these findings,

we assess three plausible explanations for our results:

1. A Reduced Deterrent Effect. A possible explanation for the relationship between

early release and recidivism identifies a reduction in sentence length as leading

to a weakened deterrent effect of criminal justice sanctions. Yet a sizeable body

of literature questions the empirical support of deterrence theory in general, and

this knowledge coincides with research that suggests that longer sentences produce

little gain in terms of reduced recidivism from an incapacitation and a deterrence

perspective. In our results, the early releasees from a community setting were less

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9133.2011.00764.x C2011 American Society of Criminology 877

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 10 rIssue 4