BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

clear image
Home  |  About Us  |  Contact Us  |  Help  |  A-Z Topic List
 
 
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
clear image
Home | Corrections | Community Corrections (Probation and Parole) | Probation
Probation
On This Page
About this Topic

The Bureau of Justice Statistics maintains the Annual Probation Survey, an annual data series designed to provide national, federal, and jurisdiction-level data from administrative records on adults supervised in the community on probation. Data include the total number of probationers supervised, by jurisdiction, on January 1 and December 31 of each year and the number of adults who entered and exited probation supervision during the year. Additional data include demographic characteristics, such as sex, race and Hispanic or Latino origin, and offense of probationers under supervision at the end of each year.

Back to Top
Data Collections & Surveys

Back to Top
Publications & Products


Correctional Populations in the United States, 2015 Presents statistics on persons supervised by adult correctional systems in the United States at yearend 2015, including persons supervised in the community on probation or parole and those incarcerated in state or federal prison or local jail.
  Press Release | PDF (787K) | ASCII file (43K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 23K)
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series

Probation and Parole in the United States, 2015 Presents data on adult offenders under community supervision while on probation or parole in 2015.
  Summary (PDF 187K) | PDF (668K) | ASCII file (41K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 30K)
Part of the Probation and Parole Populations Series

Correctional Populations in the United States, 2014 Presents statistics on persons supervised by adult correctional systems in the United States at yearend 2014, including offenders supervised in the community on probation or parole and those incarcerated in state or federal prison or local jail.
  PDF (641K) | ASCII file (26K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 48K)
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series

Probation and Parole in the United States, 2014 Presents data on adult offenders under community supervision while on probation or parole in 2014.
  Press Release | Summary (PDF 246K) | PDF (657K) | ASCII file (48K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 29K)
Part of the Probation and Parole Populations Series

Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013 Presents statistics on offenders supervised by adult correctional systems in the United States at yearend 2013, including offenders supervised in the community on probation or parole and those incarcerated in prison or local jail.
  Press Release | PDF (385K) | ASCII file (23K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 36K)
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series

Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013 U.S. CORRECTIONAL POPULATION DECLINED BY LESS THAN 1 PERCENT FOR THE SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR
  Press Release
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series

Probation and Parole in the United States, 2013 Presents data on adult offenders under community supervision while on probation or parole in 2013.
  PDF (1.7M) | ASCII file (45K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 32K)
Part of the Probation and Parole Populations Series

Probation and Parole in the United States, 2012 Presents data on adult offenders under community supervision while on probation or parole during 2012. The report describes trends in the overall community supervision population and reports on change in the probation and parole populations.
  Press Release | PDF (1.6M) | ASCII (ASCII file 51K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 30K)
Part of the Probation and Parole Populations Series

Correctional Populations in the United States, 2012 Summarizes data from various correctional collections to provide statistics on the number of offenders supervised by the adult correctional systems in the U.S. Adult correctional systems include offenders supervised in the community under the authority of probation or parole agencies and inmates held in state and federal prisons or local jails.
  Press Release | PDF (766K) | ASCII file (23K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 15K)
Part of the Correctional Populations in the United States Series

Probation and Parole in the United States, 2012 TOTAL U.S. CORRECTIONAL POPULATION DECLINED IN 2012 FOR FOURTH YEAR
  Press Release
Part of the Probation and Parole Populations Series

Back to Top
Terms & Definitions

Community corrections The supervision of criminal offenders in the resident population, as opposed to confining offenders 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.
 
Custody To have custody of a prisoner, a state or the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) must physically hold that person in one of its facilities. A locality, state, or the BOP may hold inmates over whom a different government maintains jurisdiction.
 
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.
 
Probation Probation refers to adult offenders whom courts place on supervision in the community through a probation agency, generally in lieu of incarceration. However, some jurisdictions do sentence probationers to a combined short-term incarceration sentence immediately followed by probation, which is referred to as a split sentence. Probationers can have a number of different supervision statuses, including active supervision, which means they are required to regularly report to a probation authority in person, by mail, or by telephone. Some probationers 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 probationers may be placed on inactive status immediately because the severity of the offense was minimal or some may receive a reduction in supervision and therefore may be moved from an active to inactive status. Other supervision statuses include probationers who only have financial conditions remaining, have absconded, or who have active warrants. In many instances, while on probation, offenders are required to fulfill certain conditions of their supervision (e.g., payment of fines, fees or court costs, participation in treatment programs) and adhere to specific rules of conduct while in the community. Failure to comply with any conditions can result in incarceration.
 
Back to Top
Related Links

Back to Top