Is Downsizing Prisons Dangerous? The Effect of California's Realignment Act on Public Safety
Journal: PDXScholar  (Portland State University)
Year: 2015

Research Summary: &#13;\nRecent declines in imprisonment raise a critical question: Can prison populations be reduced without endangering the public? This question is examined by testing the effect of California’s dramatic efforts to comply with court-mandated targets to reduce prison overcrowding using a pretest-posttest design. The results showed that California’s Realignment Act had no effect on violent or property crime rates in 2012, 2013, or 2014. When crime types were disaggregated, a mod