This data analysis is part of my senior thesis, presented to the Department of Mathematics at Bates College, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts.

This data analysis is part of my senior thesis, presented to the Department of Mathematics at Bates College, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts. Presented below is my abstract: A mindset shift in the 1970s to more “tough-on-crime” politics led to harsher sentencing policies across the United States. As a result, in 1976, Maine became the first state out of 16 to abolish parole, which is the conditional release of an inmate before they complete their prison sentence.  In the last 5 years, some states began to doubt their decisions on the effectiveness of abolishing parole. In 2021, a bill to reestablish parole in Maine was introduced and as a result of this bill a 13 member commission to study restoring parole in Maine was created. This project is inspired by the ongoing conversation about parole in Maine, and the fact that inmates in Maine have very few opportunities for early release and rehabilitation. In this work I conduct a data analysis to model the potential impact of reinstating parole in Maine. There is a particular focus on changes in inmate sentence lengths as well as the economic impact if Maine were to implement the parole systems of Wyoming and Vermont.

Final Project for Spatial Statistics with GIS using R class on statistics.com