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Corrections refers to the supervision of persons arrested for, convicted of, or sentenced for criminal offenses. Correctional populations fall into two general categories: institutional corrections and community corrections. Corrections data, with a few exceptions, covers adult facilities and adult inmates. For data on youth in the juvenile system, please see statistics provided by the Correctional Populations in the United States series.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) Corrections Unit maintains over 30 data collections. Most are annual collections of administrative data from correctional administrators, ranging from basic population counts and offender demographic characteristics to facility capacity, programs, staff, and resources. These data collections include—
The NPS also collects counts on specific inmate populations from the Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. territories, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Some limited information on the number of juveniles held in adult facilities is also collected in the NPS and the ASJ. Jails in Indian Country is a separate collection for data on counts and characteristics of persons held in tribal jails. BJS also tracks administrative data on other topics, such as HIV in correctional facilities, deaths in custody, sexual assault in correctional facilities, and capital punishment statutes, populations and executions.
In addition to collecting administrative data, BJS maintains a number of recurring national surveys of prison inmates, jail inmates, probationers, and parolees. These surveys are typically conducted every 5 to 7 years and use a nationally representative sample of offenders. The surveys, such as the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities and the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails, are broad in scope and collect a wide range of data on the personal and criminal histories of criminal offenders. Topics cover childhood experiences, family structure, educational background, prior criminal activity, substance abuse experiences, mental and physical health problems, and conditions of current confinement. Estimates derived from these surveys are national, and with rare exceptions, are not available at the state or facility level.
Data Collections & Surveys | |
Publications & Products | |
Correctional Populations in the United States, 2010
Presents statistics on the number of offenders under the supervision of adult correctional authorities in the United States at yearend 2010. |
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Press Release | PDF (595K) | ASCII file (33K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 26K)
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series
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PREA Data Collection Activities, 2011
The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA; P.L. 108-79) requires the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to carry out, for each calendar year, a comprehensive statistical review of the incidence and effects of prison rape in randomly selected federal, state, and county correctional facilities. |
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PDF (470KB) | ASCII file (14KB)
Part of the PREA Data Collection Activities Series
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Correctional Populations in the United States, 2009
Presents summary data on the number of adults under some form of correctional supervision in the United States at yearend 2009. |
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Press Release | PDF (345K) | ASCII file (12K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 10K)
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series
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Alcohol and Crime: Data from 2002 to 2008
This webpage includes analyses from four data sources: the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities (SISFCF), and the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ). |
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Print version (PDF 650K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 36K)
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Prisoners at Yearend 2009 - Advance Counts
Presents data on prisoners under jurisdiction of federal or state correctional authorities on December 31, 2009, collected from the National Prisoner Statistics series |
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Press Release | PDF (149K) | ASCII file (12K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 5K)
Part of the Prisoners Series
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PREA Data Collection Activities, 2010
The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) (P.L. 108-79) requires the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to carry out, for each calendar year, a comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape. |
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PDF (131K) | ASCII file (13K)
Part of the PREA Data Collection Activities Series
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Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09
Presents data from the 2008-09 National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC), conducted in 195 juvenile confinement facilities between June 2008 and April 2009, with a sample of over 9,000 adjudicated youth. |
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Press Release | Acrobat file (PDF 1.7M) | ASCII file (65K) | Zip format (Spreadsheet 40K)
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Probation and Parole in the United States, 2008
Probation and Parole in the United States, 2008 presents the number of adults under community supervision (probation or parole) at yearend 2008 and the growth rates in these populations during the year and since 2000. |
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Press Release | Acrobat file (PDF 1.5M) | ASCII file (51K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 61K)
Part of the Probation and Parole Populations Series
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Prisoners in 2008
Presents data on prisoners under jurisdiction of federal or state correctional authorities on December 31, 2008, collected from the National Prisoner Statistics series. |
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Press Release | Acrobat file (PDF 1.6M) | ASCII file (47K) | Zip format (Spreadsheet 51K)
Part of the Prisoners Series
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Jails in Indian Country, 2008
Presents findings from the 2008 Survey of Jails in Indian Country, an enumeration of 82 jails, confinement facilities, detention centers, and other facilities operated by tribal authorities or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. |
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Acrobat file (PDF 316K) | ASCII file (23K) | Spreadsheet | About the source data (Other)
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series
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Prison and Jail Deaths in Custody, 2000-2009 - Statistical Tables
Provides data on the number and causes of deaths that occurred in state prison or local jail custody. |
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Press Release | PDF (675K) | ASCII file (19K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 38K)
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National Corrections Reporting Program, 2009 - Statistical Tables (update)
This update adds data for 2009 to the electronic series of selected tables on most serious offense, sentence length, and time served in state prison. |
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Sentence length of state prisoners, by offense, admission type, sex, and race (1993-2009) | Time served in state prison, by offense, release type, sex, and race (1993-2009) | Most serious offense of state prisoners, by offense, admission type, age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin (1993-2009)
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Deaths in Custody Reporting Program, 2007 (Update)
Contains a series of data tables describing recent trends in mortality in state prison, local jails, and during the process of arrest by state and local law enforcement officers. |
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State Prison Deaths, 2001-2007 (HTML) | Local Jail Deaths, 2000-2007 (HTML) | State and Local Law Enforcement Arrest-related Deaths, 2003-2006 - Statistical Tables (HTML)
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Prison Inmates at Midyear 2009 - Statistical Tables
Presents data on prisoners under the jurisdiction of federal or state correctional authorities on June 30, 2009, collected from the National Prisoner Statistics series. |
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Press Release | PDF (419K) | ASCII file | Spreadsheet (76K)
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Capital Punishment, 2008 - Statistical Tables
Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2008, and persons executed in 2008. Preliminary data on executions by states during 2009 are included. |
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Acrobat file (PDF 1M) | ASCII file (4K) | Zip format (14K) | To order paper version
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Rated capacity of local jails at midyear, annual increase in capacity, and percent of capacity occupied, 2000-2008
Table 2 from Jail Inmates at Midyear 2008. |
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Spreadsheet
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Estimated percentages of local jail inmates by selected characteristics and ratio estimates, 2008
Table 14 from Jail Inmates at Midyear 2008, NCJ 225709. |
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Spreadsheet
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Probation and Parole in the United States, 2007 - Statistical Tables
Presents the number of persons on probation and parole at yearend 2007, by state, with percent changes in each state during the year. |
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Press Release | PDF (179K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 41K)
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Prisoners Executed
Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, region, and
jurisdiction, 1977-2008. |
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Spreadsheet (6K)
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Parole in 2006 (Appendix Tables)
Appendix Tables for Parole in 2006 consisting of 11 spreadsheets and explanatory notes. |
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Download CSV file (Zip format 39K)
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Terms & Definitions | |
Community corrections |
Community corrections refers to the supervision of criminal offenders in the resident
population, as opposed to confining them in secure correctional facilities. The two
main types of community corrections supervision are probation and parole. Community
corrections is also referred to as community supervision. |
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Custody |
To have custody of a prisoner, a state or the Federal Bureau of Prisons must hold that
person in one of its facilities. A locality, state, or the Federal Bureau of Prisons
may hold inmates over whom a different government maintains jurisdiction. |
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Custody count |
To have custody of a prisoner, a state or the Federal Bureau of Prisons must hold that
person in one of its facilities. A state may have custody of a prisoner over whom
another state maintains jurisdiction. |
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Design capacity |
The number of inmates that planners or architects intended for the facility. |
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Federal prisons |
Prison facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Prisoners housed in these
facilities are under the legal authority of the federal government. This definition
excludes the private facilities that are under exclusive contract with BOP. |
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