Inmate Racial Integration: Achieving Racial Integration in the Texas Prison System

Abstract

After nearly three decades, there has been a revival of interest in the racial integration of inmates in prisons. In light of what has been done, the literature still questions whether racial integration policies, either forced or voluntary, can be implemented at the practical level. This article examines the process of achieving racial integration in the Texas prison system. This review focuses on the court's role in forcing racial integration, the organizational response to integration, the unit-level process of integration, and the general impact of an integration policy in Texas prisons. Ultimately, this article concludes that racial integration can be realized at the practical level in the contemporary prison.

Are All Gangs Equal Security Risks? An Investigation of Gang Types and Prison Misconduct

“…In addition, as these groups often form along racial or ethnic lines they may also exacerbate racial tensions (Hassine, 2009;Ralph & Marquart, 1991;Trulson & Marquart 2002). STG members can also undermine pro-social or rehabilitative correctional programming (Colon, 2004;Winterdyk & Ruddell, 2010) as well as contributing to an environment of fear that is not conducive to rehabilitation (Daggett & Camp, 2009).…”

An Examination of Inmate Physical Assaults on Jail Correctional Staff: Exploring Inmate-Level and Jail-Level Conditions in the United States

“…Two studies from Irwin (1980Irwin ( , 2005 reveal that racial polarizations within correctional facilities were responsible for numerous interracial assaults. Another study, from Trulson and Marquart (2002), analyzed 10 years of incident data from the Texas Prison system, and uncovered that approximately 45% of all violent incidents that took place during the 1990s were interracial. Their analysis included approximately 39,000 inmate-on-inmate related offenses.…”

“…Trulson and Marquart (2001) uncovered that most of their sample, which primarily consisted of white inmates, preferred to congregate and live in separate quarters in order to avoid interacting with black inmates. In a similar study, Ekland-Olson (1986) uncovered that approximately 40% of the 700 Texas inmates who participated in a random sample survey objected to rooming with an inmate of another race.…”

Texas Latino Prison Gangs

“…Although racial segregation in Texas prisons has been legally prohibited since 1979 (Marquart & Crouch, 1984), the ad hoc social grouping of inmates continued to occur along racial lines over the next full decade. Court-mandated integration quotas for the general prison population were achieved as of the early 1990s, but for security and facility management concerns, gang members continue to be grouped by race and gang faction (Trulson & Marquart, 2002). Another characteristic that informs the classification process for the gang population is geography, or more specifically, the jurisdiction in which inmates were convicted.…”