Going to prison can result in learning a lesson, but not the kind that society prefers.

For young criminals especially, spending time behind bars can afford the opportunity to learn a thing or two from older inmates—about how to be a better criminal once released.

“Spending time in prison leads to increased criminal earnings,” Donald T. Hutcherson II, a sociology professor at Ohio University in Lancaster, concluded after studying years of criminal youth data from the U.S. government’s National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Hutcherson is the author of Street Dreams: The Effect of Incarceration on Illegal Earnings.

“On average, a person can make roughly $11,000 more [illegally] from spending time in prison versus a person who does not spend time in prison,” he told NPR.

Hutcherson explained that when teenagers arrive in prison, they sometimes “learn from these seasoned veterans. ... Basically, you are spending a lot of time around other criminals, seasoned veterans who know the lay of the land, and they can teach you the mechanisms—ways to get away with crime.”

Hutchenson also concluded that ex-prisoners who gain employment pick up more illegal income than those ex-prisoners who are unemployed. “The same human capital variables that lead to success in the conventional labor market,” wrote Hutchenson, “also lead to success in the illegal economy.” Being white also increases the acquisition of illegal incomes, as does belonging to a gang.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

To Learn More:

Crime Pays: The Connection Between Time in Prison and Future Criminal Earnings (by Donald T. Hutcherson II, Prison Journal)

When Crime Pays: Prison Can Teach Some To Be Better Criminals (by Shankar Vedantam, NPR)