BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

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Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
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Home | Corrections | Community Corrections (Probation and Parole) | Special topics
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Substance abuse
See Substance Abuse and Treatment of Adults on Probation, 1995 (NCJ 166611) 

Mental health
See Mental Health and Treatment of Inmates and Probationers (NCJ 174463)

Prior abuse
See Prior Abuse Reported by Inmates and Probationers (NCJ 172879)
 

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Data Collections & Surveys

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Publications & Products


Census of Tribal Justice Agencies in Indian Country, 2002 Presents detailed information gathered on tribal law enforcement agencies, tribal courts and services, and criminal record systems from the 2002 Census of Tribal Justice Agencies in American Indian Jurisdictions.
  Full report (PDF 337K) | ASCII file (34K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 60K) | 2002 Census of Tribal Justice Agencies in Indian Country Data File (Spreadsheet 350K)

National Correction Reporting Program, 2000 (CD-ROM) Collects data annually on prison admissions and releases and on parole entries and discharges in participating jurisdictions.
 

Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974-2001 Presents estimates of the number of living persons in the United States, 1974 to 2001, who have ever been to State or Federal prison.
  Press Release | Full report (PDF 335K) | ASCII file (40K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 63K) | Codebooks and Datasets

Education and Correctional Populations Compares educational attainment of State and Federal prison inmates, jail inmates, and probationers to that of the general population.
  Full report (PDF 360K) | ASCII file (32K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 44K) | Codebooks and Datasets

Immigration Offenders in the Federal Criminal Justice System, 2000 Describes the number of immigration offenders prosecuted in Federal court between 1985 and 2000.
  Press Release | Full report (PDF 385K) | ASCII file (42K) | Spreadsheet (44K) | Codebooks and Datasets

Trends in State Parole, 1990-2000 Examines the changing nature of offenders entering and leaving parole and the effects on the trends and composition of the prison population.
  Press Release | Full report (PDF 114K) | ASCII file (42K) | ZIP Format (Spreadsheet 60K) | Codebooks and Datasets

Linking Uniform Crime Reporting Data to Other Datasets Outlines the contents and uses of the new Law Enforcement Agency Identifiers Crosswalk file.
  Full report (PDF 65K) | ASCII file (37K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 77K) | Codebooks and Datasets

Reconciling Federal Criminal Case Processing: A Federal Justice Statistics Program Methodology Report Summarizes the technical work underlying the conclusions of the Interagency Working Group on Federal Criminal Case Processing Statistics.
  Full report (PDF 153K) | ASCII file (87K)

Prior Abuse Reported by Inmates and Probationers Describes prior physical and sexual abuse reported by persons in prison, in jail, or on probation.
  Press Release (5K) | Full report (PDF 74K) | ASCII file (22K) | Codebooks and Datasets

Lifetime Likelihood of Going to State or Federal Prison Describes characteristics of persons admitted to prison for the first time, compares lifetime and one-day prevalence rates, considers changes in admission rates since 1991, and discusses the estimation techniques.
  Press Release | Full report (PDF 150K) | ASCII file (69K) | Codebooks and Datasets

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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.
 
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 statuses include parolees who have only financial conditions remaining, have absconded, or 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.
 
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 have only financial conditions remaining, have absconded, or 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, and 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.
 
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