Deck 8: Crime and Punishment in Texas

Question 1

The Huntsville prison, known as "The Walls," opened in what year?

A) 1836
B) 1845
C) 1849
D) 1866

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The West Point graduate, Texas Secretary of War in Houston's cabinet, and Robert E.Lee's superior as commanding officer of the U.S. Second Cavalry in West Texas in the 1850s was:

A) Albert Sidney Johnston
B) Ulysses S. Grant
C) Jeb Stuart
D) Shiloh T. Hayes

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The federal court case that led to the desegregation of Texas prisons was:

A) Brown b. Board of Corrections
B) Lamar V. Coffield
C) Miranda v. Prison System
D) Houston v. Ruiz

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Violent crime rates in the U.S. and Texas peaked in:

A) 1963
B) 1976
C) 1991
D) 2004

Question 5

In 2017, Texas prisons held how many prisoners?

A) 64,000
B) 162,000
C) 214,000
D) 314,000

Question 6

At the time of the Ruiz v. Estelle trial, the guard to prisoner ratio nationally was 1 to 5. What was it in Texas prisons?

A) 1 to 4
B) 1 to 7
C) 1 to 9
D) 1 to 12

Question 7

In 2016, pay for Texas prison guards ranked where among the 50 states?

A) 44^th
B) 37^th
C) 27^th
D) 17^th

Question 8

The region of the U.S. that makes the greatest use of the death penalty is:

A) the West
B) New England
C) the South
D) the Midwest

Question 9

Over the last quarter centurythree decades (since 1991), Texas has accounted for what proportion of U.S. executions?

A) 17 percent
B) 26 percent
C) 410 percent
D) 51 percent

Question 10

Who was the young Texas Tech student who died in prison after being wrongly convicted of rape?

A) Anthony Weber
B) Charles Whitman
C) Craig Beyler
D) Timothy Cole

Question 11

A "bellicose medico" challenged Colonel DeWitt to a duel in early Texas. What did the Colonel select as his weapon of choice?

A) a bowie knife
B) the town's cannon
C) fists
D) a cane

Question 12

Douglas A.Blackmon's Pulitzer prize-winning book about the use of southern law and prisons after the end of slavery was:

A) Slavery by Another Name
B) The New South
C) The Warmth of Other Suns
D) The Suspension of Justice

Question 13

All but which of the following served as Director of Texas Prisons between 1947 and 1983?

A) O.B.Ellis
B) George Beto
C) W. J. Estelle
D) Mark White

Question 14

The federal court case Ruiz v. Estelle resulted in criticism of Texas prisons for all but which of the following deficiencies?

A) underfunding
B) lack of educational opportunities
C) overcrowding
D) prisoner violence

Question 15

The federal judge that handled Ruiz v. Estelle was:

A) John Minor Wisdom
B) William H. Rehnquist
C) William Wayne Justice
D) Samuel J. Alito

Question 16

At its peak in 2008, Texas prisons held how many inmates?

A) 62,000
B) 112,000
C) 152,000
D) 172,000

Question 17

All but which of the following political figures of the 1960s and 1970s were closely identified with the "law and order" movement?

A) Jimmy Carter
B) Richard Nixon
C) Dolph Briscoe
D) Nelson Rockefeller

Question 18

Which decade saw the greatest prison building boom in Texas?

A) 1970s
B) 1980s
C) 1990s
D) 2000s

Question 19

The most recent data (2015) from the Vera Institute of Justice on state spending per prisoner showed that Texas spent what percent of the national average?

A) 58 percent
B) 66 percent
C) 76 percent
D) 88 percent

Question 20

The most recent data on incarceration rates shows that Texas incarcerates how many people per 100,000 of population?

A) 325
B) 471
C) 553
D) 611

Question 21

In two 1972 cases, Furman v. Georgia and Branch v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court declared:

A) that the death penalty as applied violated the 8^th and 14^th Amendments
B) that prison overcrowding violated the 14^th Amendment
C) that hanging was cruel and unusual punishment
D) that segregation by race in prisons was unconstitutional

Question 22

During the Texas legislature's 1973 debate over reinstating the death penalty, which San Antonio attorney argued that it must be reinstated because Texans were more violent than others?

A) Antonio Vargas
B) Fred A. Semann
C) Dolph Briscoe
D) Craig Washington

Question 23

Texas's adoption of which sentencing provision in 2005 led to a sharp reduction in death sentences?

A) three strikes and you're out
B) sentencing de novo quorum
C) truth in sentencing
D) life without parole

Question 24

Between 1982 and 2016, blacks in Texas were executed at which multiple of their presence in the population?

A) 2 to 1
B) 3 to 1
C) 4 to 1
D) 5 to 1

Question 25

Who was the man executed in Texas in 2004 for arson and murder in the house fire that killed his three young children?

A) Cameron Todd Willingham
B) Jerry Wayne Johnson
C) John Bradley
D) Gerald Hurst

Question 26

What explains the presence of blacks in Texas prisons from the end of slavery to the present day at 2.5 to 3 times their presence in the population?

Question 27

What impact did the federal court cases Lamar v. Coffield and Ruiz v. Estelle have on how Texas prisons were organized, funded, and administered?

Question 28

What accounts for the large prison system in Texas and the state's commitment to the death penalty?

Question 29

Prior to the end of slavery, why was it uncommon for blacks to be in prison?

Question 30

Between 1866 and 1920 Texas leased prisoners to private concerns like plantations. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the convict lease system?

Question 31

What explanations do criminologists give for the decline in U.S. crime rates since the early 1990s?

Question 32

What explains the fact that crime rates were falling throughout the 1990s even as Texas went on a dramatic prison building program?

Question 33

Explain the dramatic increase in the Texas incarceration rate in the early to mid-1990s.

Question 34

How did Texas respond to the 1972 Supreme Court declaration that the death penalty as then applied was unconstitutional?

Question 35

What has brought about the rash of exonerations over the last few decades?

Question 36

Between 1885 and 1942, there were more than 8,000 lynchings in Texas.

Question 37

Blacks are represented in Texas prisons today at a rate three times their presence in the population.

Question 38

Violent crime rates in Texas have run ahead of U.S. rates in every year since 1960.

Question 39

Judge Justice's final ruling in Ruiz v. Estelle ordered guard to prisoner ratios to be reduced from 1 to 12 to 1 to 6.

Question 40

The Texas incarceration rate stands at about 553 per 100,000 of population.

Question 41

From the start, the original Texas prison at Huntsville has been known as_______

Question 42

The federal court case that led to the desegregation of Texas prisons was_______

Question 43

The New York City police technique of identifying pockets of crime block-by-block and flooding the worst of them with police assets is called _______

Question 44

The number of persons in prison per 100,000 of population is called the_______

Question 45

Texas has executed how many people since 1976_______

Question 46

Overturning a conviction due to new evidence of innocence is called _______

Question 47

Who was the man executed for arson and murder in the death of his three children_______