To provide national and State level data on the numbers of prisoners in State
and Federal prison, including their characteristics, movements, and history. Data are collected from all fifty States and the District of Columbia. Census
depends entirely upon the voluntary participation of State Department of Corrections
and the Federal Bureau of Prisons for NPS data. National information on the populations confined in correctional institutions.
The NPS distinguishes between prisoners in custody and prisoners under jurisdiction.
To have custody of a prisoner, a State or Federal system must hold that prisoner
in one of its facilities. To have jurisdiction over a prisoner, a State or Federal
system must have legal authority over the prisoner. The surveys also collect
data about the facilities and the race and gender of the inmates. Begun in 1926 under a mandate from Congress, the National Prisoner Statistics
program collects statistics on prisoners at midyear and year end. There are two different types of data collection: a paper questionnaire and
a web reporting option. Prisoners in (Year) and Prison Inmates at Midyear are bulletins published by
the Bureau of Justice Statistics approximately one year after the reference
period. They provide the number of inmates in custody of State and Federal prisons
and compare the national totals to year-end and midyear counts for previous
years. The report provides State-level incarceration rates and the percentage
change in each population during the year. The bulletins also include a national
description of the race, gender, and offense composition of these populations.
This is followed by a release of detailed tables presenting characteristics
of the inmate populations by State. The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, researchers, policymakers,
and practitioners use the data to measure prisoner growth patterns and to identify
factors related to its growth. EXPLORE INFORMATION CONTINUE OVERVIEW
NATIONAL PRISONER STATISTICS (NPS)
PURPOSE
COVERAGE
CONTENT
FREQUENCY
METHODS
PRODUCTS
USES
SPECIAL FEATURES
RELATED PROGRAMS