The departments of corrections in Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia participated in the 1994 National Recidivism Study of Released Prisoners. These 15 states were selected based on willingness to participate, the state's relative contribution to the overall national prison population, and the state's inclusion in the 1983 National Recidivism Study of Released Prisoners. The departments provided BJS with release records on 302,309 prisoners released in 1994, which accounted for about two-thirds of all prisoners released in the United States that year.  BJS drew a representative sample from each state, totaling 38,624 released prisoners, stratified by most serious conviction offense.  The sampled prisoners were tracked for three years following their release to determine if they were rearrested, reconvicted, or reimprisoned.  Sources for criminal history information were state and FBI automated RAP sheets, which contain records of arrests, adjudications, and sentences.

BJS is currently working on a new study that will track the recidivism of prisoners released from state prisons in 2005.