Can Incarcerated Felons Be (Re)integrated into the Political System? Results from a Field Experiment

Abstract

How does America's high rate of incarceration shape political participation? Few studies have examined the direct effects of incarceration on patterns of political engagement. Answering this question is particularly relevant for the 93% of formerly incarcerated individuals who are eligible to vote. Drawing on new administrative data from Connecticut, we present evidence from a field experiment showing that a simple informational outreach campaign to released felons can recover a large proportion of the reduction in participation observed following incarceration. The treatment effect estimates imply that efforts to reintegrate released felons into the political process can substantially reduce the participatory consequences of incarceration.

Voting But for the Law: Evidence from Virginia on Photo Identification Requirements

“…This surprising relationship may be explained by the fact that many who lacked photo identification received an informational mailer from the Department of Elections informing them of the law and instructing them on how to acquire photo identification, as the significant increase in turnout we observe is consolidated in places that received more of these mailings. This is consistent with evidence from other recent studies that find that informational mailings from the state can increase turnout among marginalized and potentially misinformed populations (Gerber et al 2013(Gerber et al , 2015Meredith & Morse 2015).…”

Does Incarceration Reduce Voting? Evidence about the Political Consequences of Spending Time in Prison

“…States differ substantially in when and how formerly incarcerated individuals regain the right to vote.Consequentially, eligible formerly incarcerated individuals may incorrectly believe that they are disenfranchised(Meredith and Morse 2014). Supporting this account,Gerber et al (2015) show that outreach to eligible released felons can increase their registration and voting rates.…”

“…At the same time, observing somewhat different patterns in Connecticut and Pennsylvania suggests that state context may still shape how incarceration affects turnout. Given Gerber et al's (2015) finding that mobilization is important for getting ex-felons to vote, particularly among the subset that participated previously, it would be useful to investigate whether the lower rate of participation among released prisoners in Connecticut is because that state was less contested in the presidential election than Pennsylvania, a characterization which is supported by the fact that average turnout rates declined more in Connecticut than in Pennsylvania. If context is important, applying approach three to Connecticut (if the data were available) would also allow us to understand how context is important.…”

Testing Mechanisms: Carceral Contact and Political Participation

“…() and Burch () found that selection bias and measurement error inflated the effects of serving time in prison on voting, producing a negative association larger than the true effect. Scholars have also found that outreach to felons considerably decreased the negative effects associated with incarceration (Gerber et al., ). There are also limitations associated with utilizing self‐reports of political participation.…”