[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 51 (Friday, March 15, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16534-16536]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-06011]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

[OMB No. 1121-0094]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Existing Collection; 
Comments Requested;Extension of a Currently Approved Collection: Annual 
Survey of Jails

ACTION: 30-Day Notice.

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    The Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Statistics, will 
be submitting the following information collection request to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The proposed 
information collection is published to obtain comments from the public 
and affected agencies. The proposed information was previously 
published in the Federal Register Volume 78, Number 4, pages 959-961 on 
Monday, January 7, 2013, allowing a 60-day comment period. The burden 
estimate for local jails in the Annual Survey of Jails increased from 
929 respondents as indicated in the 60-day notice to 950 respondents, 
due to the inclusion of 21 respondents from all other California jail 
jurisdictions not originally selected in the sample survey.
    The purpose of this notice is to allow for an additional 30 days 
for public comment April 15, 2013.
    If you have comments especially on the estimated public burden or 
associated response time, suggestions, or need a copy of the proposed 
information collection instrument with instructions or additional 
information, please contact Todd D. Minton, Bureau of Justice 
Statistics, 810 Seventh Street NW., Washington, DC 20531 (phone: 202-
305-9630).
    Written comments and suggestions from the public and affected 
agencies concerning the proposed collection of information are 
encouraged. Your comments should address one or more of the following 
four points:

--Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary 
for the proper performance of the functions of the Bureau of Justice 
Statistics, including whether the information will have practical 
utility;
--Evaluate the accuracy of the agencies estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
--Evaluate whether and if so how the quality, utility, and clarity of 
the information to be collected can be enhanced; and
--Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submission of responses.

Overview of This Information Collection

    (1) Type of Information Collection: Revisions of a currently 
approved collection.
    (2) Title of the Form/Collection: The Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ). 
The collection includes the forms: Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ), which 
includes the regular form and the certainty jurisdiction form; and the 
Survey of Jails in Indian Country (SJIC) regular form.
    (3) Agency form number, if any, and the applicable component of the 
Department of Justice sponsoring the collection: Form numbers include:
     Annual Survey of Jails: This collection consists of four 
forms:
    [cir] CJ-5 and CJ-5A, the ASJ regular forms: These forms go to jail 
jurisdictions in the ASJ sample that are not selected with certainty. 
The CJ-5 form goes to jail jurisdictions operated by the county or city 
and the CJ-5A goes to privately owned or operated confinement 
facilities. In an effort to assess the recent impact California jails 
have on the national jail population due to significant correctional 
policy changes in that state, non-sampled jail jurisdiction from 
California will also be included in the data collection, but not 
included in the national jail population estimate;
    [cir] CJ-5D and CJ-5DA, the ASJ certainty jurisdiction forms: The 
forms go to jail jurisdictions in the ASJ sample that are selected with 
certainty. The CJ-5D and CJ-5DA request additional information about 
the distribution of time served, staffing, and inmate misconduct that 
are not requested on the CJ-5 and CJ-5A. The CJ-5D goes to 
jurisdictions operated by the county or city; the CJ-5DA goes to 
confinement facilities administered by two or more governments and 
privately owned or operated confinement facilities.
     Survey of Jails in Indian Country (SJIC): All respondents 
receive the CJ-5B (the SJIC regular form).
    The applicable component of the Department of Justice sponsoring 
the collection is the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which is within the 
Office of Justice Programs.
    (4) Affected public who will be asked or required to respond, as 
well as a brief abstract: The affected public that will be asked to 
respond include approximately 1,000 county, city, and Tribal jail 
authorities (950 respondents to the ASJ and 82 to the SJIC). As 
community institutions that book an estimated 12 million inmates per 
year, local jails are an integral part of the justice system, operating 
at the front end (that is, following arrest or referral) as well as the 
back end (discharging inmates and holding those sentenced to jail). 
Their broad functions include handling inmates who are awaiting trial 
or sentencing, holding inmates for other authorities, detaining inmates 
with special needs such as mental health holds or alcohol 
detoxifications, transferring inmates to court appearances and bringing 
them back to detention, discharging inmates at the behest of the court 
or other entities, and holding inmates who have been sentenced to terms 
in jail.
    In response to the increase in the California jail population as 
the result of legislature and governor enacted laws to reduce the 
number of inmates housed in state prisons, BJS plans to collect data 
from the non-selected California jails in the sample survey to assess 
the impact on the national jail population. On May 23, 2011, the U.S. 
Supreme Court upheld the ruling by a lower three-judge court that the 
State of California must reduce its prison population to 137.5% of 
design capacity (approximately 110,000 prisoners) within two years to 
alleviate overcrowding. In response, the California State Legislature 
and governor enacted two laws--AB 109 and AB 117--to reduce the number 
of inmates housed in state prisons starting October 1, 2011. The Public 
Safety Realignment (PSR) policy is designed to

[[Page 16535]]

reduce the prison population through normal attrition of the existing 
population while placing new nonviolent, nonserious, nonsexual 
offenders under county jurisdiction for incarceration in local jail 
facilities. Inmates released from local jails will be placed under a 
county-directed post-release community supervision program (PRCS) 
instead of the state's parole system.
    The set of collections in this package provides BJS with the 
capacity to track and analyze changes in the jail inmate population 
that might signal changes in the kinds of cases coming into or leaving 
the criminal justice system, and to analyze how the volatility of jail 
inmate populations affects the workload of jails and their capacities 
to provide services. The parallel structure of the SJIC collection 
provides BJS with this capacity for Indian country jails.
    In its entirety, this collection is the only national effort 
devoted to describing and understanding annual changes in jail 
populations as well as assessing programs and capacities to provide 
services. The collection enables BJS, other federal agencies, and 
state, local, and Tribal corrections authorities and administrators, as 
well as legislators, researchers, and jail planners to track growth in 
the number of jails and their capacities nationally; as well as, track 
changes in the demographics and supervision status of jail population 
and the prevalence of crowding.
    The forms and information content for this collection are outlined 
next in the following order: First, the components of the Annual Survey 
of Jails (ASJ), which include the CJ-5, CJ-5A, CJ-5D, and CJ-5DA. 
Second, the Survey of Jails in Indian Country (SJIC) includes the CJ-
5B.
    The two components of the Annual Survey of Jails include the CJ-5/
5A and CJ-5D/5DA forms. The CJ-5/5A forms are to be administered to ASJ 
sample elements that are selected with a probability of less than 1. 
The CJ-5D/5DA forms are to be administered to ASJ sample elements 
selected with certainty.

CJ-5 and CJ-5A

    For these forms, 555 respondents from sampled county and city jails 
and 21 respondents from non-selected California jails will be asked to 
provide information for the following categories:
    (a) At midyear (last weekday in the month of June), the number of 
inmates confined in jail facilities including; male and female adult 
and juvenile inmates; persons under age 18 held as adults; race 
categories; held for Federal authorities, State prison authorities and 
other local jail jurisdictions.
    (b) At midyear, the number of convicted inmates that are 
unsentenced or sentenced and the number of unconvicted inmates awaiting 
trial/arraignment, or transfers/holds for other authorities.
    (c) At midyear, the number of persons under jail supervision who 
were not U.S. citizens.
    (d) Whether the jail facilities has a weekend incarceration program 
prior to midyear and the number of inmates participating.
    (e) The number of new admissions into and final discharges from 
jail facilities during the last week in June.
    (f) The date and count for the greatest number of confined inmates 
during the 30-day period in June.
    (g) The average daily population of jail facilities from July 1 of 
the previous year to June 30 of the current collection year.
    (h) Jail capacity, measured three ways: Rated capacity, operating 
capacity, and design capacity.
    (i) At midyear, the number of persons under jail supervision but 
not confined (e.g., electronic monitoring, day reporting, etc.)

CJ-5D and CJ-5DA

    These forms will be administered to the certainty jurisdictions in 
the ASJ sample; in addition to the information collected in the regular 
ASJ forms (the CJ-5/5A), the 374 respondents that are included with 
certainty in the ASJ sample survey will be asked to provide additional 
information on the flow of inmates going through jails and the 
distribution of time served, staff characteristics and assaults on 
staff resulting in death, and inmate misconduct. More specifically, 
these include:
    (a) The distribution of time served by inmates discharged during 
the final week of June, broken out by whether the inmates were 
convicted or unconvicted.
    (b) At midyear, the number of correctional officers and other staff 
employed by jail facilities;
    (c) From July 1 of the previous year to June 30 of the current 
collection year: The number of inmate-inflicted physical assaults (and 
counts) on correctional officers and other staff and the number of 
staff deaths as a result.
    (d) From July 1 of the previous year to June 30 of the current 
collection year: The number of inmates, by category, who were written 
up or found guilty of a rule violation.

CJ-5B

    The Survey of Jails in Indian Country is collected from Indian 
country correctional facilities operated by tribal authorities or the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) (currently there are 82) will be asked 
to provide information for the following categories:
    (a) At midyear (last weekday in the month of June), the number of 
inmates confined in jail facilities including; male and female adult 
and juvenile inmates; persons under age 18 held as adults; convicted 
and unconvicted males and females; persons held for a felony, 
misdemeanor; their most serious offense (e.g., domestic violence 
offense, aggravated or simple assault, burglary, public intoxication, 
driving while intoxicated, etc.)
    (b) The average daily population during the 30-day period in June;
    (c) The date and count for the greatest number of confined inmates 
during the 30-day period in June;
    (d) The number of new admissions into and final discharges during 
the month of June;
    (e) From July 1 of the previous year to June 30 of the current 
collection year: The number of inmate deaths while confined and the 
number of deaths attributed to suicide and the number of confined 
inmates that attempted suicide;
    (f) At midyear, the total rated capacity of jail facilities;
    (g) At midyear, the number correctional staff employed by the 
facility and their occupation (e.g., administration, jail operations, 
educational staff, etc.);
    (h) At midyear, how many jail operations employees had received the 
basic detention officer certification and how many had received 40 
hours of in-service training;
    (5) An estimate of the total number of respondents and the amount 
of time estimated for an average respondent to respond: Six hundred and 
fifty-eight respondents each taking an average 75 minutes to respond 
for collection forms CJ-5 and CJ-5A, and CJ-5B. Three hundred and 
seventy-four respondents each taking 120 minutes to respond for 
collection forms CJ-5D and CJ-5DA.
    (6) An estimate of the total public burden (in hours) associated 
with the collection: There are an estimated 1,571 total burden hours 
associated with this collection.
    If additional information is required contact: Jerri Murray, 
Department Clearance Officer, U.S. Department of Justice, Justice 
Management Division, Policy and Planning Staff, Two Constitution 
Square, 145 N Street NE., Room 1407B, Washington, DC 20530.


[[Page 16536]]


    Dated: March 12, 2013.
Jerri Murray,
Department Clearance Officer, PRA, U.S. Department of Justice.
[FR Doc. 2013-06011 Filed 3-14-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-18-P