Texas Prison Research Articles

Spare the Needle but Not the Punishment: The Incarceration of Waived Youth in Texas Prisons

The primary purpose of judicial waiver is to impose more severe sanctions on offenders than are available in juvenile court. This article explores two dimensions of sanction severity, sentence length and actual time served, to determine if juveniles waived to adult court do receive more severe sanctions. Data were collected on all youth waived to adult court from 1981-1993 and sentenced to prison (n = 946). Juveniles in this population consistently received longer sentences than are available in juvenile court. When actual time served was taken into consideration, however, these youth rarely served more lengthy sentences than are available in juvenile court, serving an average of only 27% of their original sentence.

Changing of the Guard: A Case for Privatization of Texas Prisons

The privatization of prisons is an idea whose time seems to have come in the United States. Although still a small fraction of the total number of correctional facilities and beds overall, the size of the private sector presence in recent years has increased rapidly. The present article reviews the historical record of correctional privatization in Texas and examines more recent data and issues in that state and elsewhere, to argue that the accelerated growth of the private prison industry is a change for the good.

Race and correctional officers' punitive attitudes toward treatment programs for inmates

The attitude of correctional officers is a crucial variable related to how the prison system acts, reacts, and interacts with inmates. The proposition that the induction of minorities into the correctional workplace will induce more compassion toward inmate clients by reducing both tension and hostility within the prison is inconclusive. This article examines the recent inclusion of minorities into the traditionally Caucasian male correctional officer's world within Texas prisons. Are minority attitudes toward treatment programs for inmates different from those of Caucasian officers? The observations and analysis of the data support the position that attitudinal variation among officers' attitudes are significantly related to the race of the officer. That is, the attitudes of minority officers toward treatment programs does appear to be statistically different from those exhibited by the traditional Caucasian male officer. Most interesting is the finding that the African American officers rather than the Caucasian officers are less punitive over time in their attitudes.

A Large-Scale Multidimensional Test of the Effect of Prison Education Programs on Offenders' Behavior

This study examined the prison behavior and postrelease recidivism of more than 14,000 inmates released from Texas prisons in 1991 and 1992. Comparisons were made between participants and nonparticipants in prison education programs on a variety of behavioral outcomes. The findings suggest that these programs may be most effective when intensive efforts are focused on the most educationally disadvantaged prisoners. Implications for correctional education policy and correctional program research are discussed.

Disparity in the Discipline of Male and Female Inmates in Texas Prisons

This study examines disciplinary practices in the two prisons housing all of Texas' female inmates. These practices are compared to those found in the Texas prison for males where, on relevant demographic and criminal history characteristics, the population most closely matches the female prisoners. Findings: women are more often cited for rule violations than men; most citations received by women are less than serious, but women are punished more severely; and certain rules are scrupulously enforced in women's institutions but ignored in men's. The study reveals two distinct institutional forms of surveillance and control. Differences in disciplinary practices at these institutions are best understood as a function of gender-specific interpretation and application of state-wide correctional policy.

Prison Folk Poetry: The Barone Trilogy

Data for this paper are three poems collected by a convict at a southeast Texas prison farm. The poems are about his past acquaintance, a fellow convict known as Johnny Barone. The first poem was composed as a birthday gift to its subjects, the second by Barone himself, and the third by the prisoner collecting them, who, even though the protagonist still lived, titled it “The Epitaph of Johnny Barone”, completing a trilogy. As a set, these poems represent traditional forms in which prisoners express their attitudes toward crime, punishment, the penal System, the past and the present.

Survival by Nancy Lord

92 Western American Literature Survival. By Nancy Lord. (Minneapolis'. Coffee House Press, 1991. 161 pages, $9.95.) Living close to nature in Alaska requires keen skills for survival, as parts of the country are still as unspoiled and primitive as they were when all of the lower forty-eight were in varying degrees of exploration—an overriding reason many people are drawn to its shores. In the initial story, “Survival,” from which the collection takes its name, the narrator explains, “You don’t live in a small Alaskan town for thejob you can get; you do whateverjob you can in order to be able to live in such a place.” Nancy Lord presents these contemporary pioneers in a way which makes them seem like former neighbors or college friends. She serves slices ofAlaskan life which are intriguing, poignant, and earthy. As it does in much of western literature, the land itself plays the most powerful role in her fifteen dramas. Each one, like a gem in the northern lights tiara, represents a quest for quality and meaning in life. Most are about women’s relationships with: the environ­ ment (“Waiting for the Thaw”a picture of cabin fever), each other (“Imitations” where the companionship of a unique dog is preferable to that of a boorish beau), and men (“Snowblind” the tale of a government employee’s overly romanticized affair with an unkempt Peter Pan who also happens to be mar­ ried). Four stories are told primarily from a male point of view. Of these “Bucketful of Mice”was my favorite and a powerful reminder that food fulfills only one of our basic needs. Her characterization and gripping imagery, remi­ niscent of Flannery O’Connor, are outstanding. Let us hope Ms. Lord will continue to take time from her commercial fishing job to share more of the experiences of those new and original Alaskans which she catches in her perceptive net—because as Nadine in “Snowblind” says, “Some of us need Alaska, even if it’s only in our minds. You know, even ifwe’re not there, we need Alaska to be there.” MICHAELINE K. V. CHANCE-REAY Columbus State Community College The Bounty of Texas. Edited by Francis Edward Abernethy. (Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 1990. 232 pages, $19.95.) “A folklorist can live off the bounty of Texas easy enough—and get fat,” editor F. E. Abernethy says, figuratively explaining this title and literally describ­ ing some members of the Texas Folklore Society. From Mr. and Mrs. J. Frank Dobie (deceased) to Elmer Kelton and Robert Flynn (now in their prime), there are 18 never-before-published essays on folklore and, in one case, fakelore (“Folk Speech in Texas Prisons”). An extraordinary essay is somewhere in ...

Right - Wing Extremism in the Texas Prisons: The Rise and Fall of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas

One of the most significant changes in American prisons in the last three decades has been the emergence of inmate organizations. In some states, street gang members imported the identity and power of their gangs into the prisons. The Blackstone Rangers and the Devil's Disciples became important players in the Illinois prison system (Jacobs 1977). Similarly, in California, especially during the 1960s, the Black Guerilla Family espoused a revolutionary doctrine, while Hispanic gangs such as the Nuestra Familia and Mexican Mafia formed to control lucrative prison rackets (Davidson 1974). Indeed, for the last two decades, prisoner gangs have posed a serious challenge for custodial administrators. Despite the role of the gang in the prison power structure, comprehensive national data on the origins and nature of prisoner gangs remains elusive. One study found that in 29 state prison systems, 114 gangs had been officially identified with an estimated membership of some 12,000 members (Camp and Camp 1985).

Gang Violence in Texas Prisons

Gang Violence in Texas Prisons

An Appeal to Justice: Litigated Reform of Texas Prisons.

An Appeal to Justice: Litigated Reform of Texas Prisons.

Parole survival and legislated change: A before/after study of parole revocation decision making

A 1985 change in the Texas “good time” law provided a unique opportunity to study the effects of legislated change on a correctional process. For nearly five years the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) had been laboring under both a court order that restricted the maximum capacity of its prison system and a growing felony offender population. According to key provisions of the revised law, the director of TDC could decide to release “returned inmates” in as little as three months, providing the revocation did not involve a new conviction. The law was intended to provide a means of controlling the Texas prison population at its source, TDC. The bill's sponsors, however, believed that the change also might have a profound impact on the processing of parole revocation hearings as accused parole violators exercised their new found “right” to return to the custody of TDC and possibly to a reparole in three months. The present study examines the legal and extralegal aspects of all waivers initiated in the y...

Resolving the paradox of reform: Litigation, prisoner violence, and perceptions of risk

The turmoil and prisoner violence that frequently follow court efforts to improve prison conditions have been called the “paradox of reform,” in which the very process intended to make the prison better can make it a more dangerous place. This argument implies that prisoners are often safer before the reforms and that high rates of violence and fear become a normal element of postreform prison life. The present analysis examines violence rates and prisoners' perceptions of risk before and through nearly a decade of litigated reform in the Texas prison system. Results show that prisoners did not feel at all safe in the “old days” and that the paradox exists only in the short term.

Penology for Profit: A History of the Texas Prison System, 1867-1912. Texas A&M Southwestern Studies, No. 7.

Penology for Profit: A History of the Texas Prison System, 1867-1912. Texas A&M Southwestern Studies, No. 7.

An appeal to justice: litigated reform of Texas prisons

An appeal to justice: litigated reform of Texas prisons

Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling Down. By Steve J. Martin & Sheldon Ekland-Olson. Texas Monthly Press. 289 pp. $21.95

Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling Down. By Steve J. Martin & Sheldon Ekland-Olson. Texas Monthly Press. 289 pp. $21.95

Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling Down.

Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling Down.

Penology for Profit: A History of the Texas Prison System, 1867-1912

Journal Article Penology for Profit: A History of the Texas Prison System, 1867–1912. By Donald R. Walker. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1988. xiii + 216 pp. $24.50.) Get access Samuel Walker Samuel Walker University of Nebraska, Omaha Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 76, Issue 2, September 1989, Page 614, https://doi.org/10.2307/1908049 Published: 01 September 1989

Book Review: Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Book Review: Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Penology for profit: a history of the Texas prison system, 1867-1912

Penology for profit: a history of the Texas prison system, 1867-1912

Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling down

Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling down