Could sending criminals to prison be good for their kids?

IN A FORTHCOMING paper in the , one of the discipline’s most prestigious journals, three economists conclude that “[p]arental incarceration has beneficial effects on some important outcomes for children.” Unsurprisingly the study has provoked outrage from keyboard warriors. Some are uncomfortable with the very notion that prison could have anything other than wholly malign effects. Others worry that the research, however well intentioned, gives politicians ammunition to double down on punitive penal policy. In reality, though the study has some uncomfortable findings, it should help governments devise better policy.The authors analyse 30 years’ worth of high-quality administrative data from the state of Ohio. They study children whose parents are defendants in a criminal case. Using a clever methodology, they in effect divide the children into two groups, which are identical except in one crucial respect: whether or not one of their parents was sent to prison. In some cases, parents who committed relatively minor crimes were on the wrong side of harsh judges, whereas others got off scot-free for the same offence.