BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

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Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
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Home | Corrections | Special populations
Special populations
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The Corrections Unit collects data for special populations in corrections through administrative records and inmate interviews (See Prison Data Sources for more information). Special population include inmates held by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Jails in Indian Country, the U.S. military, the U.S. Territories, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Juvenile data is limited to persons under 18 years of age held in adult correctional facilities. For data on youth in the juvenile system, please see statistics provided by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency and Prevention (OJJDP).

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Data Collections & Surveys

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Publications & Products


Jails in Indian Country, 2015 Describes jails, confinement facilities, detention centers, and other correctional facilities operated by tribal authorities or the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  Summary (PDF 211K) | PDF (845K) | ASCII file (17K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 41K)
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series

Jails in Indian Country, 2014 Presents findings from the 2014 Survey of Jails in Indian Country, an enumeration of 79 jails, confinement facilities, detention centers, and other correctional facilities operated by tribal authorities or the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  Press Release | Summary (PDF 210K) | PDF (874K) | ASCII file (23K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 53K)
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series

Jails in Indian Country, 2014 THE INDIAN COUNTRY JAIL POPULATION INCREASED 4 PERCENT BETWEEN 2013 AND 2014
  Press Release
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series

Federal Justice Statistics, 2010 Describes the annual activity, workloads, and outcomes associated with the federal criminal justice system from arrest to imprisonment, using data from the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA), Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC), and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
  PDF (4.3M) | ASCII file (67K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 183K)
Part of the Federal Justice Statistics 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

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

Jails in Indian Country, 2012 Presents findings from the 2012 Survey of Jails in Indian Country, an enumeration of 79 jails, confinement facilities, detention centers, and other correctional facilities operated by tribal authorities or the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  Press Release | PDF (1M) | ASCII file (22K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format)
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series

Jails in Indian Country, 2012 INDIAN COUNTRY JAIL INMATE POPULATION INCREASED ABOUT SIX PERCENT FOR SECOND INDIAN COUNTRY JAIL INMATE POPULATION INCREASED ABOUT SIX PERCENT FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR
  Press Release
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series

Jails in Indian Country, 2011 2,239 INMATES IN INDIAN COUNTRY JAILS IN 2011, UP 5.7 PERCENT FROM 2010
  Press Release
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series

Jails in Indian Country, 2010 Presents findings from the 2010 Survey of Jails in Indian Country, an enumeration of all jails, confinement facilities, detention centers, and other correctional facilities operated by tribal authorities or the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on June 30, 2010.
  Press Release | PDF (756K) | ASCII file (36K) | Spreadsheets (Zip format 32K)
Part of the Jails in Indian Country Series

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Terms & Definitions

Custody count The number of offenders in 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 have custody of a prisoner over whom a different government maintains jurisdiction.
 
Federal prisons Prison facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Prisoners housed in these facilities are under the legal authority of the federal government. This excludes private facilities 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 facilities in which individuals are locked up overnight.
 
Jurisdiction count 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 (BOP). However, prisoners housed in another state and under the legal authority of the governing state are included.
 
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.
 
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