NCJ Number
195315
Date Published
2000
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This study used self-report questionnaire data to account for the number of Native American inmates housed in an Ohio women’s prison in order to illustrate how government accounting of racial and ethnic composition was seriously flawed.
Abstract
This study was designed to illustrate that the self-perceptions of racial identity of inmates at an Ohio prison was much different from official government statistics of race. The author asserts that government accounting of racial or ethnic composition is often seriously flawed, portraying an inaccurate view of racial make-up in different areas. For this study, data was gathered using an open-ended questionnaire distributed to all inmates at the Ohio Reformatory for Women (ORW) in Marysville, Ohio, which houses over 1,700 inmates ranging in age from 17 to 70 years. The goal of the research was to detect how many inmates classified themselves as Native American and whether this figure provided by the inmates differed from the official State statistics concerning the racial composition at ORW. According to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction statistics, only two Native American women were housed in ORW at the time of the research. The State claimed that most inmates were either Black (n = 1,134) or white (n = 899). The findings suggest that the official State data on inmates in this facility were mistaken concerning racial identity. While the State only identified 2 Native American inmates at ORW, a total of 255 women inmates identified themselves as Native American. The author asserts that such poor identification of racial composition by the State has implications in terms of rehabilitation methods. More generally, the author points out that figures on racial composition for all sorts of groups are used to make social policy decisions, thus placing in serious doubt policies that rely on these figures. References