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This article examines the history, law, and research on racial desegregation in American prisons. It focuses on the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case of Johnson v. California, in which the Court held that prison administrators cannot racially segregate inmates unless under extraordinary circumstances to maintain the security of inmates, staff, and institutions. This article also examines evidence on attitudes and outcomes of racial desegregation in prisons. It ends with a discussion of racial desegregation mandates and policy change in prison organizations

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Recently in the state of Ohio, there has been a controversy over whether inmates who share cells in state correctional institutions should be of the same race or should be assigned to cells regardless of their race. Some observers have attributed the 1993 riot at Lucasville to attempts to racially integrate prison cells; others reject this claim. There is little understanding, however, of what policies are followed in major correctional institutions in other states. We conducted a national survey of prison wardens at maximum security institutions to learn more about this important policy issue. The findings from this research have yielded some similarities across states. However, the results also indicate that few wardens are aware of the policies in place at other facilities and of policies held by their state departments of corrections.

ABSTRACT* * * An article by Joubert, Picon and McIntosh (1981) is found to contain several serious methodological flaws. A second analysis using a similar data set suggests that these methodological problems may have caused them to draw erroneous conclusions regarding the effects of social structural variables on prison admission and release rates.