Racial Desegregation in Prisons

• Author: Chad R. Trulson,James W. Marquart,Craig Hemmens,Leo Carroll
• Date: 01 June 2008
• DOI: 10.1177/0032885508319208
• Published date: 01 June 2008
• Subject Matter: Articles

Racial Desegregation

in Prisons

Chad R. Trulson

University of North Texas, Denton

James W. Marquart

The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson

Craig Hemmens

Boise State University

Leo Carroll

University of Rhode Island, Kingston

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 can-

not racially segregate inmates unless under extraordinary circumstances to

maintain the security of inmates, staff, and institutions. This article also exam-

ines 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.

Keywords: desegregation; prisons; prison violence integration; Johnson v.

California

When Eric Balagot, a tattooed and violent White supremacist, stepped

onto the recreation yard in 1998 at the New Hampshire State Prison

at Concord, little did he know that his head would be stomped so hard that

James Skinner’s shoe tread would leave an impression on his skull—a beating

that also left him dead. Skinner, a Black inmate, was charged with murder,

claimed self-defense, and was acquitted. The New Hampshire State Prison

The Prison Journal

Volume 88 Number 2

June 2008 270-299

© 2008 Sage Publications

10.1177/0032885508319208

http://tpj.sagepub.com

hosted at

http://online.sagepub.com

270

Author’s Note:The research contained in this document was coordinated in part by the Texas

Department of Criminal Justice under Research Agreement No. 016-R99. The contents of this

publication reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or poli-

cies of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Please address correspondence to Chad R.

Trulson, Department of Criminal Justice, University of North Texas, Box 305130, Denton,

TX 76203; ctrulson@unt.edu.

System at Concord was faced with allegations that prison officers failed to

protect inmates from racial assaults by letting them on the yard, unsuper-

vised, with racial enemies.

Penitentiaries hold disproportionate numbers of the most violent and

least stable individuals in American society (Jacobs, 1983). It should cause

little surprise to learn that race has been and continues to be one of the most

salient influences on prisoner behavior (Irwin, 2005, p. 85; Jacobs, 1983).

Research and other media have portrayed the prison environment as fraught

with racial tensions and violence—that the American prison has gone helter

skelter, a place in which inmates self-segregate and avoid and racial tensions

and violence dominate their days.1As Jacobs (1983, p. 78) explained, “It is

hard to imagine a setting that would be less conducive to . . . race relations than

the prison.” Events such as the 2006 Los Angeles County Jail race riots

periodically remind us of the reality of Jacobs’s statement.

What would be surprising to learn, however, is that race is being used

less and less in prison settings as a factor affecting housing assignments.

Despite instances of race riots, disturbances, and racially motivated killings,

no other institution in American society has arguably made more progress

with desegregation in the past 30 years, in kind and degree, than have prisons.

Indeed, desegregation is occurring in one of the most unlikely of places in

the prison setting—the double cell.2

The rich history of racial segregation in American prisons belies the

changes occurring today. Well after institutions in the wider society were

desegregated, prisoners remained largely segregated by race. In some systems,

especially in the South, entire prisons were racially segregated, and this

practice occurred well into the 1960s (Jacobs, 1983). A 1963 publication

from one southern prison system made note of the degree of segregation in

their facilities:

The type of prisoners are White, first offenders of all ages. . . . habitual crimi-

nals and negroes over the age of 25. . . . Latin American first offenders and

the best rehabilitative prospects under 25. . . . A prison farm where first

offenders, negroes, are confined. (Hammett, 1963, pp. 92-93)

This narrative is not much different than the practices of other state prison

systems at the time (see Chilton, 1991; Harris & Spiller, 1977; Irwin, 1980;

Oshinsky, 1996; W. Taylor, 1993, 1999; Yackle, 1989).

Those systems without the resources or inclination to segregate entire

prisons remained racially segregated in such areas as camps, buildings, cell-

blocks, dormitories, and job assignments. Crouch and Marquart (1989, p. 246)

Trulson et al. / Racial Desegregation in Prisons 271