Training in corrections

¶ … prisons is violence within the inmate population. A great deal of this violence is gang related, and most prison gangs have strong racial and/or ethnic affiliations (Trulson et al. 2006; Turley 2005). For this reason, policies of purposeful racial segregation have been implemented in several states in an attempt to reduce violence (Turley 2005). Recent scholarship suggests, however, that racial integration in prisons could help to reduce violence and create a better atmosphere for rehabilitation (Trulson & Marquart 2002).

This research project will attempt to identify the actual statistical relationship between levels of integration in prison populations and the rate and extremity of violent incidents in these prisons. The basic question at the heart of this research would be a challenge to the dominant strain of thinking regarding race in prisons for the past several decades, namely "does racial integration in prisons promote greater levels of violence amongst the inmate population, or will integration efforts have a positive effect on violence and general rehabilitative efforts?"

This type of question lends itself to a highly detailed quantitative analysis. Demographics of prisoners in the various states are readily available, as are statistical and absolute reports regarding incidents of violence among prisoners, which are reported through various official channels and methods in the different states (Trulson & Marquart 2002; Trulson 2006). Due to the long-term use of segregated "separate but equal" policies in state prison systems in California, Illinois, and New York, the effects of such institutional segregation can be fairly easily ascertained and compared to prisons via statistical analysis of qualitative data regarding these states' demographic numbers and rates of violence (Turley 2005).

The main variables that will be analyzed in this study are racial demographics and rates of violence. In the relationship examined in the course of this research, race -- or more technically, the level of integration in a given prison population as measured by racial demographics within a given cell block/other mixed population -- would be the independent variable. The rate and level of violence in these populations would be the dependent variable. The essential question of the research would be to determine the existence and extent of any relationship between these two variable sets in order to determine if integration is indeed advisable.