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.
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.
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.
Incarcerated population
Incarcerated population is the population of inmates confined in a prison or a jail.
This may also include halfway-houses, bootcamps, weekend programs, and other entities
in which individuals are locked up overnight.
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction generally refers to a unit of government or to the legal authority to
exercise governmental power. In corrections, it refers to the government which has
legal authority over an inmate (state or federal). Prisoners under a given state's
jurisdiction may be housed in another state or local correctional facility.
Jurisdiction count
Includes prisoners under legal authority of state or federal correctional authorities
who are housed in prison facilities (e.g., prisons, penitentiaries and correctional
institutions; boot camps; prison farms; reception, diagnostic, and classification
centers; release centers, halfway houses, and road camps; forestry and conservation
camps; vocational training facilities; prison hospitals; and drug and alcohol
treatment
facilities for prisoners), regardless of which state they are physically held in. This
number also includes prisoners who are temporarily absent (less than 30 days), out to
court, or on work release; housed in local jails, private facilities, and other
states'
or federal facilities; serving a sentence for two jurisdictions at the same time. This
count excludes prisoners held in a state or federal facility for another state or the
Federal Bureau of Prisons. However, prisoners housed in another state and under the
legal authority of the governing state are included.
Movement
In corrections, a movement refers to an admission or a release from a status such as
prisoner, parolee, or probationer. Unless specifically noted, a transfer between
facilities does not count as a movement.
Parole
Parole refers to criminal offenders who are conditionally released from prison to
serve the remaining portion of their sentence in the community. Prisoners may be
released to parole by a parole board decision (discretionary release/discretionary
parole), according to provisions of a statute (mandatory release/mandatory parole),
through other types of post-custody conditional supervision, or as the result of a
sentence to a term of supervised release. In the federal system, a term of supervised
release is a sentence to a fixed period of supervision in the community that follows a
sentence to a period of incarceration in federal prison, both of which are ordered at
the time of sentencing by a federal judge. Parolees can have a number of different
supervision statuses including active supervision, which means they are required to
regularly report to a parole authority in person, by mail, or by telephone. Some
parolees may be on an inactive status which means they are excluded from regularly
reporting, and that could be due to a number of reasons. For instance, some may
receive a reduction in supervision, possibly due to compliance or meeting all required
conditions before the parole sentence terminates, and therefore may be moved from an
active to inactive status. Other supervision statues include parolees who only have
financial conditions remaining, have absconded, or who have active warrants. Parolees
are also typically required to fulfill certain conditions and adhere to specific rules
of conduct while in the community. Failure to comply with any of the conditions can
result in a return to incarceration.
Prison
Compared to jail facilities, prisons are longer-term facilities owned by a state or by
the Federal Government. Prisons typically hold felons and persons with sentences of
more than a year; however, the sentence length may vary by state. Six states
(Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Delaware, Alaska, and Hawaii) have an integrated
correctional system that combines jails and prisons. There are a small number of
private prisons, facilities that are run by private prison corporations whose services
and beds are contracted out by state or federal governments.
Prisoners
Prisoners are inmates confined in long-term facilities run by the state or federal
government or private agencies. They are typically felons who have received a sentence
of incarceration of 1 year or more. (Sentence length may vary by state because a few
states have one integrated prison system in which both prison and jail inmates are
confined in the same types of facilities.)
Private prisons
Prison facilities run by private prison corporations whose services and beds are
contracted out by state governments or the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Sentenced prisoners
Prisoners under the jurisdiction of state and federal correctional authorities who have
been given a sentence of more than one year.
State prisons
Prison facilities run by state correctional authorities. Prisoners housed in these
facilities are under the legal authority of the state government and generally serving
a term of more than 1 year.
Total correctional population
Total correctional population is the population of persons incarcerated, either in a
prison or a jail, and persons supervised in the community, either on probation or
parole.
Total inmates in 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. This count includes inmates held in any public
facility run by a state or the Federal Bureau of Prisons, including halfway houses,
camps, farms, training/treatment centers, and hospitals. This number includes the
number of inmates held in local jails as reported by correctional authorities in the
Annual Survey of Jails.