U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Jail Inmates at Midyear 2008 - Statistical Tables March 2009, NCJ 225709 ---------------------------------------------------------- This file is text only without graphics and many of the tables. A Zip archive of the tables in this report in spreadsheet format (.csv) and the full report including tables and graphics in .pdf format are available from: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/jim08st.htm This report is one in a series. More recent editions may be available. To view a list of all in the series go to the http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pubalp2.htm#jim ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- By Todd D. Minton and William J. Sabol, Ph.D. BJS Statisticians Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ): definitions and functions Jails--facilities in the ASJ include confinement facilities usually administered by a local law enforcement agency, intended for adults but may hold juveniles before or after adjudication. Facilities include jails and city/county correctional centers, special jail facilities such as medical or treatment or release centers, halfway houses, work farms, and temporary holding or lockup facilities that are part of the jail's combined function. Inmates sentenced to jail facilities usually have a sentence of 1 year or less. Jail functions--within the ASJ, jail functions are to: *receive individuals pending arraignment and hold them awaiting trial, conviction, or sentencing, *readmit probation, parole, and bail bond violators and absconders, *temporarily detain juveniles pending transfer to juvenile authorities, *hold mentally ill persons pending their movement to appropriate mental health facilities, *hold individuals for the military, for protective custody, for contempt, and for the courts as witnesses, *release convicted inmates to the community upon completion of sentence, *transfer inmates to federal, state, or other authorities, *house inmates for federal, state, or other authorities because of crowding of their facilities, *sometimes operate community-based programs as alternatives to incarceration. Admissions--persons officially booked and housed in jails by formal legal document and the authority of the courts or some other official agency. Jail admissions include persons sentenced to weekend programs and who are booked into the facility for the first time. Excluded from jail admissions are inmates reentering the facility after an escape, work release, medical appointment or treatment facility, and bail and court appearances. BJS collects jail admissions for the last 7 days in June. Average daily population--sum of the numbers of inmates in jail each day for a year, divided by the number of days in the year (i.e., between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008). Average annual change--mean average change across a 12-month time period. Calculating annual admissions--BJS collects the number of jail admissions during the last 7 days in June. Annual jail admissions are calculated by multiplying weekly admissions by the sum of 365 days divided by 7 days. Calculating weekly jail turnover rates--calculated by adding admissions and releases and dividing by the average daily population. See Methodology for additional information. Inmates confined at midyear--number of inmates held in custody on the last weekday in June. Jail incarceration rate--number of inmates held in the custody of local jails, per 100,000 U.S. residents. Non-U.S. citizen--any foreign born person who has not been granted U.S. citizenship. Includes but is not limited to those in an alien status; lawful permanent residents (green card holders); refugees, persons applying for political asylum depending upon the date the asylum was pending or approved; asylum grantees; diplomats; and foreign nationals living temporarily in the United States (e.g., tourist, medical treatment, business, temporary work, study, or other similar reasons). Definitions may vary by state. Percent of capacity occupied--number of inmates at midyear divided by the rated capacity multiplied by 100. Rated capacity--number of beds or inmates assigned by a rating official to a facility, excluding separate temporary holding areas. Releases--persons released after a period of confinement (e.g., sentence completion, bail/bond releases, other pretrial releases, transfers to other jurisdictions, and deaths). Releases include those persons who have completed their weekend program and who are leaving the facility for the last time. Excluded from jail releases are temporary discharges including work release, medical appointment or treatment center, court appearance, furlough, day reporting, and transfers to other facilities within the jail's jurisdiction. Under jail supervision but not confined--all persons in community-based programs operated by the jail facility. Programs include electronic monitoring, house arrest, community service, day reporting, and work programs. Under jail supervision but not confined excludes persons on pretrial release and who are not in a community-based program run by the jail. Excludes persons under supervision of probation, parole or other agencies, inmates on weekend programs, and inmates who participate in work release programs and return to the jail at night. Weekend programs--allow offenders to serve their sentences of confinement only on weekends (i.e., Friday Sunday). Methodology Annual Survey of Jails In each year between the years that BJS conducts a complete census of local jails, BJS conducts the Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ). ASJ is a sample survey of local jails used to estimate the number and characteristics of local inmates nationwide. For the 2008 ASJ, the U.S. Census Bureau, as the collection agent, drew a sample of 875 jurisdictions and 934 jail facilities. Local jail jurisdictions included counties (parishes in Louisiana) or municipal governments that administered one or more local jails. During the collection process, two new regional jails were added to the sample and one jurisdiction was closed and removed from the sample. Data were estimated for one jurisdiction that did not respond to the survey. The 2008 ASJ sample included all jails with certainty (65) that were operated jointly by two or more jurisdictions, or multi-jurisdictional jails. Other jail jurisdictions included with certainty (269) were those that-- *held juvenile inmates at the time of the 2005 Census of Jail Inmates and had an average daily population of 500 or more inmates during the 12 months ending June 30, 2005 *held only adult inmates and had an average daily population of 750 or more. The remaining jurisdictions were stratified into two groups: jurisdictions with jails holding at least one juvenile on June 30, 2005, and jails holding only adults on that date. Using stratified random sampling, 541 jurisdictions were selected from 8 strata based on the two conditions enumerated above and 4 strata based on the average daily jail inmate population during 2005. The average daily jail inmate population was derived from the 2005 Census of Jail Inmates. Data were obtained from sampled jurisdictions by mail-out and web-based survey questionnaires. After follow-up phone calls to respondents, the response rate for the survey was 100% for critical items, such as the number of inmates confined, average daily population, and rated capacity. (See appendix tables 12, 13 and 14 for standard errors associated with reported estimates from the ASJ 2008 at ). Weekly admission and release estimation procedures Based on the 2008 ASJ, 834 of the 934 jail facilities (89%) provided valid data on weekly admissions and releases. Because there were nonresponse and incomplete data on admissions and releases, data on offender flows through local jails were estimated for 100 jail facilities to calculate a weekly estimate. Estimates were based on two criteria: *Data for 99 jail facilities included admission and release data based on data from the 2007 Annual Survey of Jails. *Data for 1 jail facility was based on the average number of admissions and releases for the average daily population category in which the facility was grouped. Calculating annual admissions Based on findings from the 2004 Survey of Large Jails (SLJ), BJS determined that the June admission data were a reliable source to calculate a nationwide annual admission estimate. Although the number of admissions to jails fluctuated throughout the year, the SLJ tracked monthly movements from January 2003 to January 2004 and determined that the June 2003 count (339,500) closely matched the annual average number of admissions (342,956). The number of annual admissions was calculated by multiplying the weekly admissions by the sum of 365 days divided by 7 days. Calculating weekly turnover rates Weekly jail turnover rates were modeled after the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Additional information on turnover rates is available at . Jail turnover rates were calculated by adding admissions and releases and dividing by the average daily population. The turnover rate takes into account admissions into and releases from jails and gives an indication of the volatility of the jail population. Higher turnover rates mean relatively larger numbers of admissions and releases relative to the size of the average daily population. Revised inmate population The number of inmates held at midyear 2006 and 2007 for San Bernardino County, CA, and Wayne County, MI, are based on revised data. The number of inmates held at midyear 2007 for Hillsborough County, FL, are based on revised data. Revised average daily population The average daily population in 2006 and 2007 for San Bernardino County, CA, Wayne County, MI, and Clark County, NV, are based on revised data. The average daily population in 2007 for Hillsborough County, FL, and Lee County, FL, are based on revised data. Revised rated capacity Capacity data for Miami-Dade County, FL has been revised for 2005 to 2007 to reflect rated capacity. Capacity data for Baltimore City, MD, in 2006 and 2007 was revised to reflect design capacity. BJS was reporting the operating capacity for both jail jurisdictions. The rated capacity in 2007 for Clark County, NV, and the District of Columbia are based on revised data. ---------------------------------------------------------- The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Michael D. Sinclair is the acting director. The data were analyzed and tables were prepared by Todd D. Minton and William J. Sabol, Ph.D. Heather C. West, Ph.D., verified the report. Lisa A. McNelis carried out the data collection and processing with assistance provided by Joshua Giunta and Alonzo Johnson under the supervision of Pam Butler, Governments Division, Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. Duane H. Cavanaugh and Diron J. Gaskins provided technical assistance. Tina Dorsey and Georgette Walsh produced and edited the tables. Jayne E. Robinson prepared the report for final printing under the supervision of Doris J. James. March 2009, NCJ 225709 ------------------------------------------------- Office of Justice Programs Innovation . Partnerships . Safer Neighborhoods http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov ------------------------------------------------- 3/31/2009/JER