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Discretionary release and prison cells : simulating a shift from automatic to discretionary early release

Luc Robert (UGent) , Rembert De Blander, Alexia Jonckheere, Eric Maes and Benjamin Mine
(2019) Criminology in the New Era : Confronting Injustice and Inequalities, 2019 Annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Abstracts.
Author
Organization
Abstract
In this paper, we assess the planned shift of early release decision-making for short-term prisoners in Belgium from the executive branch to the judiciary. Belgium voted in 2006 to shift early release decision-making to the judiciary, but government has only implemented this for prisoners with long sentences (over 3 years). The executive branch held control over the release of short-term prisoners, in part out of concerns over the impact on prison crowding. Based on decision-making by the judiciary for prisoners with a sentence over 3 years up to 5 years (the nearest comparable group) between February 1, 2007 and the end of 2014 (n = 1016), a fraction-based simulation study is conducted in order to assess the extra number of days spent in prison (short-term prisoners released in the same period: n = 45323) such a shift could entail. For a prison population with a daily average of 11578 prisoners in 2014 (the last year of the simulation data), a shift would lead to a surplus average of 2291 prisoners, thus raising crowding levels and the need for new prisons. This finding can inform current policy debates on imprisonment, prison crowding and prisoner release, which are briefly explored here.

Citation

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MLA
Robert, Luc, et al. “Discretionary Release and Prison Cells : Simulating a Shift from Automatic to Discretionary Early Release.” Criminology in the New Era : Confronting Injustice and Inequalities, 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Abstracts, American Society of Criminology (ASC), 2019.
APA
Robert, L., De Blander, R., Jonckheere, A., Maes, E., & Mine, B. (2019). Discretionary release and prison cells : simulating a shift from automatic to discretionary early release. Criminology in the New Era : Confronting Injustice and Inequalities, 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Abstracts. Presented at the Annual Meeting 2019 American Society of Criminology, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Chicago author-date
Robert, Luc, Rembert De Blander, Alexia Jonckheere, Eric Maes, and Benjamin Mine. 2019. “Discretionary Release and Prison Cells : Simulating a Shift from Automatic to Discretionary Early Release.” In Criminology in the New Era : Confronting Injustice and Inequalities, 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Abstracts. American Society of Criminology (ASC).
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Robert, Luc, Rembert De Blander, Alexia Jonckheere, Eric Maes, and Benjamin Mine. 2019. “Discretionary Release and Prison Cells : Simulating a Shift from Automatic to Discretionary Early Release.” In Criminology in the New Era : Confronting Injustice and Inequalities, 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Abstracts. American Society of Criminology (ASC).
Vancouver
1.
Robert L, De Blander R, Jonckheere A, Maes E, Mine B. Discretionary release and prison cells : simulating a shift from automatic to discretionary early release. In: Criminology in the New Era : Confronting Injustice and Inequalities, 2019 Annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Abstracts. American Society of Criminology (ASC); 2019.
IEEE
[1]
L. Robert, R. De Blander, A. Jonckheere, E. Maes, and B. Mine, “Discretionary release and prison cells : simulating a shift from automatic to discretionary early release,” in Criminology in the New Era : Confronting Injustice and Inequalities, 2019 Annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Abstracts, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2019.
@inproceedings{8640020,
  abstract     = {{In this paper, we assess the planned shift of early release decision-making for short-term prisoners in Belgium from the executive branch to the judiciary. Belgium voted in 2006 to shift early release decision-making to the judiciary, but government has only implemented this for prisoners with long sentences (over 3 years). The executive branch held control over the release of short-term prisoners, in part out of concerns over the impact on prison crowding.

Based on decision-making by the judiciary for prisoners with a sentence over 3 years up to 5 years (the nearest comparable group) between February 1, 2007 and the end of 2014 (n = 1016), a fraction-based simulation study is conducted in order to assess the extra number of days spent in prison (short-term prisoners released in the same period: n = 45323) such a shift could entail.

For a prison population with a daily average of 11578 prisoners in 2014 (the last year of the simulation data), a shift would lead to a surplus average of 2291 prisoners, thus raising crowding levels and the need for new prisons.

This finding can inform current policy debates on imprisonment, prison crowding and prisoner release, which are briefly explored here.}},
  author       = {{Robert, Luc and De Blander, Rembert and Jonckheere, Alexia and Maes, Eric and Mine, Benjamin}},
  booktitle    = {{Criminology in the New Era : Confronting Injustice and Inequalities, 2019 Annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Abstracts}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{San Francisco, CA, USA}},
  publisher    = {{American Society of Criminology (ASC)}},
  title        = {{Discretionary release and prison cells : simulating a shift from automatic to discretionary early release}},
  url          = {{https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/asc/asc19/index.php?cmd=Online+Program+View+Paper&selected_paper_id=1546383&PHPSESSID=uj6us0feeu6oamkqqaj40k24u0}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}