13
and Steckel, p. 944). Moreover, if at the margins of subsistence, demographic,
socioeconomic factors, and insolation were more significant in stature attainment, prison
records may illustrate these effects more clearly. Most whites in the prison sample were
imprisoned in Ohio, Missouri, Texas, and Pennsylvania prisons (Table 2).
There also is concern over prison entry requirements, and physical descriptions
were recorded by prison enumerators at the time of incarceration as a means of
identification, therefore, reflect pre-incarceration conditions. Between 1830 and 1920,
prison officials routinely recorded the dates inmates were received, age, complexion,
nativity, stature, pre-incarceration occupation, and crime. All prison records with
complete age, stature, occupation, and nativity were collected. There was care recording
inmate statures because accurate measurement had legal implications for identification in
the event that inmates escaped and were later recaptured.6 Arrests and prosecutions
across states may have resulted in various selection biases that may affect the results of
this analysis. However, white stature variations within US prisons are consistent with
other stature studies (Steckel, 1979; Margo and Steckel, 1982; Nicholas and Steckel,
1991, pp. 941-943; Komlos, 1992; Komlos and Coclanis, 1997; Bodenhorn, 1999;
Sünder, 2004).
Fortunately, inmate enumerators were quite thorough when recording inmate
complexion and occupation. For example, enumerators recorded inmates’ race in a
complexion category, and enumerators recorded white complexions as light, medium,
dark, and fair. The white inmate complexion classification is further supported by
European immigrant complexions, which were always of fair complexion and were also
6 Many inmate statures were recorded at quarter, eighth, and even sixteenth increments.