BY: KRISTIN F. BUTCHER
Boston College
Department of Economics
ANNE MORRISON PIEHL
Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of
Government
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Paper ID: NBER Working Paper No. 6974
Date: February 1999
Contact: KRISTIN F. BUTCHER
Email: Mailto:kristin.butcher at bc.edu
Postal: Boston College
Department of Economics
Carney Hall 145
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02167-3806 USA
Phone: (617)552-3696
Co-Auth: ANNE MORRISON PIEHL
Email: Mailto:annep at ksgrsch.harvard.edu
Postal: Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government
79 John F. Kennedy St.
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
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ABSTRACT:
Using data on all new admissions to California state prisons in
1986, 1990, and 1996, we find that the foreign-born have a very
different offense mix from native-born inmates, with foreigners
much more likely to be serving time for drug offenses. We
document and discuss many of the substantial changes in the
enforcement environment over this period, including the war on
drugs, changes in public law expanding the classes eligible for
deportation, and increases in the level of resources
appropriated for enforcement activities targeting deportable
aliens. These developments have resulted in much greater
attention by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the
incarceration of the foreign born. By 1996, the definition of
"deportable" was such that it covered essentially all
non-citizens in the California prison system. Throughout the
period, those foreign-born inmates designated by the California
Department of Corrections to be released to INS custody serve
substantially (6-12 percent) longer terms (conditional upon
sentence length) than natives or other "similar" foreigners.
These longer terms of incarceration impose substantial costs on
the state.
JEL Classification: K42, J18, H79