A study of 1.5 million criminal records from 39 U.S. states found systematic racial misclassification by Department of Corrections authorities, with 29% of individuals predicted to be Hispanic officially classified as White, inflating White crime rates by 6% and deflating Hispanic rates by 31%. State-level analysis showed no correlation with political ideology, suggesting administrative error rather than deliberate bias, though misclassification rates correlated with Native American ancestry among Latino populations.