Survey of Prison Inmates Statistical Support Center (SPISSC)

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Survey of Prison Inmates (SPI), formerly known as the Surveys of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities, collects and analyzes data from state and federal prisoners and produces national statistics of the U.S. prison population. The SPISSC will provide scientific and technical support for statistical and methodological research, statistical analyses, data linkage, documentation, and dissemination services in support of the SPI. It will also enhance the utility and relevance of BJS’s statistical reporting program from the SPI and other federal sources of data that complement the SPI; increase the use of SPI data by various stakeholders, including by researchers to focus on key challenges in the correctional field and strategies for dealing with them; and provide nonstatistical audiences with translational products to increase the use of these statistics by the larger community of stakeholders and practitioners. The SPISSC will assist BJS in expanding its capacity to analyze SPI data and leverage administrative records to supplement the survey data, document the analyses and expand on the survey documentation, and increase the understanding and use of the SPI data by the broader research and stakeholder communities, therefore increasing the breadth of substantive issues that the SPI addresses.