How Does Visitation Affect Incarcerated Persons and Their Families? Estimates Using Exogenous Variation in Visits Driven by Distance Between Home and Prison

Abstract

Tens of millions of people in the world are incarcerated, which may negatively affect them and their families. Visitation may mitigate the negative consequences, but there is little causally identified evidence on its efficacy. To generate plausibly causal estimates, we utilize the fact that incarcerated persons in Denmark are assigned to the prison with open capacity that is closest to their home. The distance-driven variation in visitation, coupled with Danish registry data, allows us to measure the effects of visitation on incarcerated persons and their families. We find little evidence that visitation affects incarcerated individuals or their family members.