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Federal Prisoner Statistics Collected under the First Step Act, 2020

NCJ Number
255111
Date Published
February 2021
Description

Selected prisoner statistics for 2019 include marital, veteran, citizenship, and English-speaking status; educational levels; medical conditions; and participation in treatment programs. BJS is also required to report some facility statistics, such as the number of prisoner assaults on staff, prisoners’ violations of rules that resulted in time-credit reductions, and selected facility characteristics related to accreditation, on-site health care, remote learning, video conferencing, and costs of prisoners’ phone calls. The statistics in the current report are for calendar year 2019, which is the first full year under the FSA. Data for 2020 will be available from the BOP in the second half of 2021. The data-collection methodology is described.

Highlights
  • The portion of federal prisoners who were the parent, step-parent, or guardian of a minor child (defined as a dependent age 20 or younger by the BOP) grew from 45% to 49% from year-end 2018 to year-end 2019.
  • On December 31, 2019, a total of 31,458 federal prisoners were non-citizens of the United States (18% of all BOP prisoners), and 21,922 prisoners identified English as their second language (13% of all BOP prisoners).
  • During 2019, a total of 3,791 federal prisoners earned a general-equivalency degree (GED) or other equivalent certificate while in prison.
  • In 2019, there were 386 instances of prisoners being placed in administrative maximum segregated housing, the BOP's most restrictive level of segregated housing.

Date Published: February 16, 2021