This article examines the impact of desegregation on inmate-on-inmate violence in the Texas prison system. Desegregation resulted from Lamar v. Coffield (1977), a class action civil suit that forced the Texas prison system to racially integrate its double cells. We examine 10 years of data in the aftermath of desegregation to gauge the impact that Lamar had on violence in Texas prisons. This analysis is situated within two divergent literature bases that predict vastly different outcomes of inmate desegregation. This article represents the first long-term study of inmate violence following judicial intervention in general and inmate desegregation in particular.
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