Department of Justice Proposes Changes to National Prisoner Statistics Program

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The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), a part of the U.S. Department of Justice, is planning to update the National Prisoner Statistics program (NPS). The BJS has asked the public for comments on this plan. Comments will be accepted for 60 days, ending on September 22, 2025.

Information Collected

The NPS program collects yearly numbers about prisoners held by state and federal prisons. It tracks the number of people admitted and released. The information is used to report on how people move through the prison system each year. This helps the BJS show changes in the prison population and supports the work of many people.

Key Changes

  • One change is that questions about HIV/AIDS will be removed. These may come back in special health supplements in the future.
  • The BJS also plans to test a new way to collect race and ethnicity data. This matches the rules in the 2024 OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 15.
  • The BJS will also check if more race and ethnicity data can be collected from the current data systems.

Who Must Report

  • NPS-1B: Used by 51 reporters (one from each state and the Federal Bureau of Prisons).
  • NPS-1B(T): Used by five reporters from U.S. Territories or Commonwealths (Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Virgin Islands, American Samoa).

Information Required from States and Federal Prisons

Each year, the 51 reporters must give details including:

  • The number of men and women in prison as of December 31, sorted by sentence length and if they are unsentenced.
  • How many people are housed in private, county, or other facilities.
  • Admission types: new court commitments, parole violators, other transfers, and returns.
  • Release types: finished sentences, commutations, probation, parole, deaths by cause, transfers, and other categories.
  • Prisoners by race and Hispanic origin.
  • U.S. citizenship status of prisoners.
  • The source used for citizenship data.
  • The capacities of prisons, broken down by sex.

Information Required from Territories and Commonwealths

Each year, the five reporters from the territories must provide:

  • Number of men and women in prison as of December 31 by sentence length, and how complete those numbers are.
  • People sent to other places to reduce overcrowding.
  • Prisoners by race and Hispanic origin.
  • The end-of-year capacities of correctional facilities by sex.

Why This Matters

The Bureau of Justice Statistics uses the collected information for government reports. These reports are used by Congress, the President, researchers, students, media, and others interested in crime and justice data.

Response Details

Responding to the survey is voluntary. Each of the 51 main respondents will spend about 4.5 hours each year on the NPS-1B form. The five territory respondents will each spend about 2 hours on the NPS-1B(T) form. The total estimated burden is 795 hours over three years, or about 265 hours per year. The overall cost for all respondents is estimated at $577,000 per year.

Contact Information

For questions or copies of the data collection forms, contact Derek Mueller, Bureau of Justice Statistics, at 999 N Capitol St. NE, Washington, DC 20531, or call 202-307-0765.

If you need more information, you can also contact Darwin Arceo at the Department of Justice, 145 N Street NE, Washington, DC 20530.

Publication Information

This notice was published in the Federal Register, Volume 90, Number 140, on July 24, 2025. The notice number is 2025-13933.


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