In Quebec, offenders sentenced to more than six months are eligible for parole once they have served one-third of their sentence. About half of eligible offenders choose to waive their right to attend a parole hearing. Why?
During this seminar, authors Guy Lacroix (Université Laval, CIRANO) and William Arbour (Université de Montréal) presented the analyses and results of a recent CIRANO study that identifies the key determinants of the choice to waive parole hearings and examines the causal effect of parole on recidivism.
While there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that parole can prevent reoffending, we know very little about the contexts in which it is appropriate and the practices of release that ensure success. This study is the only study conducted in Quebec that provides a thorough understanding of the mechanisms at work and draws strong conclusions. The study is based on exclusive administrative data from the Québec Department of Public Safety and multivariate regression and machine learning methods.
