Biography: Marcella Alsan is a Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Alsan received a BA from Harvard University, a master’s in public health from Harvard School of Public Health, a MD from Loyola University, and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. Alsan trained at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Hiatt Global Health Equity Residency Fellowship – then combined the PhD with an Infectious Disease Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to returning to Harvard she was on faculty at Stanford. She is an applied microeconomist studying health inequality.

“Something Works: Misconduct and Recidivism Effects of the IGNITE Program”

Abstract: US incarceration policy is often influenced by the longstanding view that “nothing works” when it comes to rehabilitating inmates. We revisit this question with a novel quasi-experimental approach and estimate the misconduct and recidivism effects of IGNITE: an innovative inmate education program in Flint, Michigan. Individuals whose court hearings are idiosyncratically rescheduled tend to spend more time in the county jail and have worsened outcomes prior to the launch of IGNITE. Afterwards, individuals who are more exposed to IGNITE via rescheduling see dramatically reduced rates of violent and suicidal incidents in the jail and lowered recidivism post-release.