Texas Politics - Profiling Texas Prison Inmates

Ethnicity

An Ethnic Profile of Texas Prison Inmates and All Texans, 1975 and 2002


Click on the links below to toggle between charts and see various comparisons.
Prison Population, 1975 Texas Population, 1975 Prison Population 2002 Texas Population, 2002	Prison Population, 1975 Texas Population, 1975 Prison Population 2002 Texas Population, 2002
These pie charts compare the state's ethnic makeup with the ethnic profile of Texas prison inmates. Compared with the state's population, minorities were overrepresented in Texas prisons in 1975 and they continue to be overrepresented today. However, patterns of overrepresentation have changed over time with the shifting ethnic makeup and the tremendous population growth both in Texas and in the Texas prison system. Please click on the links below to compare different charts.

Source: J. W. Lamare; Texas Department of Criminal Justice; Census Bureau. (full source)

Full Source: Inmate data for 1975 is from Lamare, James W. Texas Politics: Economics, Power, and Policy. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1981. Originally from Texas Department of Corrections, 1975 Annual Statistical Report (Huntsville, TX: Texas Department of Corrections, n.d.). Inmate data for 2002 is from a Texas Department of Criminal Justice statistical summary accessed 16 August 2004 at http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/publications/executive/stat_summary_fy02/ stat_summary_fy02_toc.htm. State population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. Figures for 2000 are from http://www.census.gov and the Texas State Data Center at http://txsdc.tamu.edu/. Figures for 1975 were estimated by linear interpolation of 1970 and 1980 census figures from "Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals by Race, 1790 to 1990, and by Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, for the United States, Regions, Divisions, and States," available at http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056.html, accessed 23 September 2004.

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Profiling Texas prison inmates