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The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) collects criminal history data from the FBI and state record repositories to study recidivism patterns of various offenders, including persons on probation or discharged from prison.

The latest study of state prisoners estimated the recidivism patterns of about 400,000 persons released from state prisons in 30 states in 2005. The findings from the 2005 study cannot be directly compared to those from BJS's previous prisoner recidivism studies due to changes in the demographic characteristics and criminal histories of the U.S. prison population, an increase in the number of states in the study, and improvements made to the quality and completeness of the nation’s criminal history records since the mid-1990s. BJS has also used criminal history records to examine the recidivism of persons placed on federal community supervision in 2005.

In addition to recidivism statistics based on criminal history records, BJS collects administrative data through the Annual Surveys of Probation and Parole to examine the rate at which offenders are at risk of being incarcerated for a new offense or for violating the conditions of their supervision.

Data Collections & Surveys

• Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP)
• Recidivism Survey of Felons on Probation
• Recidivism of State Prisoners

Publications & Products

Recidivism of Offenders Placed on Federal Community Supervision in 2005: Patterns from 2005 to 2010 Examines the offending patterns of persons on federal community supervision in 2005 by offender characteristics and prior criminal history.
	Press Release | Summary (PDF 263K) | PDF (592K) | ASCII file (43K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 22K)
Drug Offenders in Federal Prisons: Estimates of Characteristics Based on Linked Data Presents a description of drug offenders in federal prison, including criminal history, demographics, gun involvement in the offense, and sentence imposed.
	Press Release | Summary (PDF 223K) | PDF (499K) | ASCII file (24K) | Comma-delimted format (Zip format 14KB)
Drug Offenders in Federal Prisons: Estimates of Characteristics Based on Linked Data MORE THAN HALF OF DRUG OFFENDERS IN FEDERAL PRISON WERE SERVING SENTENCES FOR POWDER OR CRACK COCAINE
	Press Release
Multistate Criminal History Patterns of Prisoners Released in 30 States Examines the multistate criminal history patterns of persons released from prisons in 30 states in 2005 and the characteristics of released prisoners whose criminal careers are in one or multiple states.
	Press Release | Summary (PDF) | PDF (612KB) | ASCII file (26KB) | CSV (Comma Separated Values) (Zip format 26KB)
Multistate Criminal History Patterns of Prisoners Released in 30 States 11 PERCENT OF PRISONERS RELEASED IN 30 STATES IN 2005 WERE ARRESTED IN ANOTHER STATE WITHIN 5 YEARS
	Press Release
Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 30 States in 2005: Patterns from 2005 to 2010 3 IN 4 FORMER PRISONERS IN 30 STATES ARRESTED WITHIN 5 YEARS OF RELEASE
	Press Release Part of the Recidivism of Prisoners Released Series
Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 30 States in 2005: Patterns from 2005 to 2010 - Update Examines the 5-year post-release offending patterns of persons released from state prisons in 2005 by offender characteristics, prior criminal history, and commitment offense.
	Supplemental Tables (PDF 223K) | Supplemental Tables (CSV) (Zip format 5K) | Press Release | PDF (1.5M) | ASCII file (35K) | Delimited-comma format (CSV) (Zip format 44K) Part of the Recidivism of Prisoners Released Series
Prisoner Recidivism Analysis Tool This analysis tool allows users to calculate recidivism rates for persons released from state prisons. Recidivism rates may be generated for the entire sample of released prisoners or for released prisoners with specific demographic, criminal history, and sentence attributes.
	Prisoner Recidivism Analysis Tool (Data online) | Press Release
Prisoner Recidivism Analysis Tool This analysis tool enables users to calculate recidivism rates for persons released from State prisons. Recidivism rates may be generated for a large sample of releasees or for releasees with specific demographic, criminal history, and sentence attributes.
	Press Release
National Corrections Reporting Program: Sentence length of state prisoners, by offense, admission type, sex, and race Presents data on sentence length of state prisoners, by offense, admission type, sex, and race.
	1993 (Zip format 11K) | 1994 (Zip format 12K) | 1995 (Zip format 11K) | 1996 (Zip format 12K) | 1997 (Zip format 13K) | 1998 (Zip format 10K) | 1999 (Zip format 8K) | 2000 (Zip format 10K) | 2001 (Zip format 11K) | 2002 (Zip format 10K) | 2003 (Zip format 11K) | 2004 (Zip format 10K) | 2005 (Zip format 10K) | 2006 (Zip format 11K) | 2007 (Zip format 11K) | 2008 (Zip format 11K) | 2009 (Zip format 11K) Part of the National Corrections Reporting Program Series

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