BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

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Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
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State and federal prisoners and prison facilities
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The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) maintains several data collections on prisoners and prison facilities using administrative records maintained by the each state’s department of corrections, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), and personal interviews with inmates in state and federal prisons (see Data Collections for a summary of these collections). State and federal prisoner populations differ from the jail inmate population in terms of conviction status, offense distribution, and average length of stay. The federal prisoner population is also unique from the state prisoner population, most notably in offense distribution. Similarly, prison facilities differ from local jail facilities in average size, treatment and programming resources, and crowding, among other characteristics. For more information, see Terms and Definitions.

Using information gathered from these data series, BJS regularly publishes reports and statistical tables of prison population counts, prisoner characteristics, state and federal prison facility characteristics, capital punishment, deaths, in custody, and special topics, such as recidivism, substance abuse and treatment, mental health, education, and incarcerated parents.

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Terms & Definitions

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.
 
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