Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics The National Jail Census was conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Excluded from the census were federal- or state-administered facilities, including the combined jail-prison systems in Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Data include jail population by reason being held, age (juvenile or adult) and sex, maximum sentence that can be served in the facility, available services, type of security available, facility capacity, age, construction and renovation of the facility, employment, and operating expenditures.Years Produced: Every 5 years

National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) on inmates under the jurisdiction of both federal and state correctional authorities.

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics The National Justice Agency List is a master name and address file created and maintained by the United States Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The file was first created in 1970, and the Census Bureau has continued to maintain and expand the file. For the original survey, each county in the United States and each municipality and township with a 1960 population of 1,000 or more persons was surveyed to identify the names and addresses of the criminal justice agencies and institutions controlled by local government. The survey was conducted by mail canvass. In addition to the mail survey, the Census Bureau collected information on state-level governments and counties with a 1960 population of 500,000 or more and cities with a 1960 population of 300,000 or more through in-house research methods. The reference information included a variety of published government documents such as budget statements, organization manuals, and state, county, and municipal directories.

This survey probed the needs and problems facing local criminal justice practitioners. Within each sampled county, survey questionnaires were distributed to the police chief of the largest city, the sheriff, the jail administrator, the prosecutor, the chief trial court judge, the trial court administrator (where applicable), and probation and parole agency heads. Although the general topics covered in the questionnaires are similar, specific items are not repeated across the questionnaires, except for those given to the sheriffs and the police chiefs. The sheriffs surveyed were those with law enforcement responsibilities, so the questions asked of the police chiefs and the sheriffs were identical. The questionnaires were tailored to each group of respondents, and dealt with five general areas: (1) background characteristics, including staff size, budget totals, and facility age, (2) criminal justice system problems, (3) prison crowding, (4) personnel issues such as training needs and programs, and (5) operations and procedures including management, management information, and the specific operations in which the respondents were involved. In some cases, sets of question items were grouped into question batteries that dealt with specific topic areas (e.g., staff recruitment, judicial training, and number of personnel). For example, the Staff Recruitment battery items in the Probation and Parole Questionnaire asked respondents to use a 4 point scale to indicate the seriousness of each of the following problems: low salaries, poor image of corrections work, high entrance requirements, location of qualified staff, shortage of qualified minority applicants, and hiring freezes.