Three strikes and you're out: demographic analysis of mandatory prison sentencing
Schmertmann, C.P.; Amankwaa, A.A.; Long, R.D.
Demography 35(4): 445-463
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0070-3370 PMID: 9850469 DOI: 10.2307/3004013Document Number: 278088
Much of the debate about the costs and benefits of "three-strikes" laws for repeat felony offenders is implicitly demographic, relying on unexamined assumptions about prison population dynamics. However, even state-of-the-art analysis has omitted important demographic details. We construct a multistate life-table model of population flows to and from prisons, incorporating age-specific transition rates estimated from administrative data from Florida. We use the multistate life-table model to investigate patterns of prison population growth and aging under many variants of three-strikes laws. Our analysis allows us to quantify these demographic changes and suggests that the aging of prison populations under three-strikes policies will significantly undermine their long-run effectiveness.