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Assessing the Accuracy of State Prisoner Statistics

NCJ Number
173413
Date Published
February 1999
Annotation
Compares two series of data on characteristics of State prisoners: State prison records and State court records.
Abstract

Reports on a wide array of statistics routinely compiled and disseminated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) that describe persons sentenced to State prisons during the year. Prisoner characteristics are available in two different sources; State prison records and State court records. This report investigates the extent to which prisoner characteristics from one source match those from the other. Results of the investigation indicate a close correspondence between court and prison records.

Date Published: February 1, 1999