[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 231 (Monday, December 2, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66023-66024]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-25996]



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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

[OMB Number 1121-0311]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed eCollection 
eComments Requested; Reinstatement, With Change, of Previously Approved 
Collection: National Inmate Survey in Prisons (NIS-4P)

AGENCY: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Department of Justice.

ACTION: 60-Day notice.

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SUMMARY:  The Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs, 
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.

DATES:  Comments are encouraged and will be accepted for 60 days until 
January 31, 2020.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have additional 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 
Amy Lauger, Supervisory Statistician, Institutional Research and 
Special Projects Unit, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 810 Seventh Street 
NW, Washington, DC 20531 (email: [email protected]; telephone: 
202-307-0711).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:  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 agency's 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
--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: Reinstatement, with change, of a 
previously approved collection.
    2 The Title of the Form/Collection: National Inmate Survey in 
Prisons (NIS-4P).
    3 The agency form number, if any, and the applicable component of 
the Department sponsoring the collection: There is no agency form 
number at this time. The applicable component within the Department of 
Justice is the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in the Office of Justice 
Programs.
    4 Affected public who will be asked or required to respond, as well 
as a brief abstract: Respondents will primarily be State, Local, or 
Tribal Government entities. The work under this clearance will be used 
to produce estimates for the incidence and prevalence of sexual 
victimization within correctional facilities as required under the 
Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (Pub. L. 108-79). The Bureau of 
Justice Statistics uses this information in published reports and for 
the U.S. Congress, Executive Office of the President, practitioners, 
researchers, students, the media, and others interested in criminal 
justice statistics.
    In 2003, the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA or the Act) was 
signed into law. The Act requires BJS to ``carry out, for each calendar 
year, a comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidence 
and effects of prison rape.'' The Act further instructs BJS to collect 
survey data: ``. . . the Bureau shall . . . use surveys and other 
statistical studies of current and former inmates . . .''
    To implement the Act, BJS developed the National Prison Rape 
Statistics Program (NPRS), which includes four separate data collection 
efforts: The Survey on Sexual Violence (SSV), the National Inmate 
Survey (NIS), the National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC), and the 
National Former Prisoner Survey (NFPS). The NIS collects information on 
sexual victimization self-reported by inmates held in adult 
correctional facilities, both prisons and jails. The NIS has been 
conducted three times, in 2007 (NIS-1), in 2008-09 (NIS-2), and in 
2011-12 (NIS-3). Each iteration of NIS was conducted in at least one 
facility in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In each 
iteration of the survey, inmates completed the survey using an audio 
computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI), whereby they heard questions 
and instructions via headphones and responded to the survey items via a 
touch-screen interface.
    The collection requested in this notice is the fourth iteration of 
the National Inmate Survey. For NIS-4, administration of the survey in 
prisons will take place separately from survey administration in jails. 
This collection request is specific to conducting the survey in adult 
prison facilities.
    The survey instrument for the NIS-4 in Prisons is slightly modified 
from the previous iterations. The main difference is the addition of a 
new set of incident-specific questions administered to respondents who 
affirmatively indicate they were sexually victimized at some point in 
the previous 12 months while housed in their current prison facility. 
These incident-specific questions will provide information to the 
public on the nature of sexual victimization in prisons, such as where 
incidents occurred within the facility, the relationship between the 
victim and the alleged perpetrator(s), and whether the victim suffered 
any injuries as a result of the incident, among other incident 
characteristics.
    5 An estimate of the total number of respondents and the amount of 
time estimated for an average respondent to respond: Prior to data 
collection commencing in 2020, BJS will coordinate the logistics of 
NIS-4 survey administration with staff at state, local, and tribal 
correction facilities. Because the administration of this survey in 
jails is not included in this request, the overall number of burden 
hours is lower than in the last request approved in 2010 (the jail 
survey will be submitted under a new OMB number). It is estimated that 
150 facility respondents will devote 180 minutes of time to this 
coordination effort. During data collection in 2020, 77,000 state, 
local, and tribal adult inmates held in prisons

[[Page 66024]]

will be interviewed, with the average interview lasting an estimated 35 
minutes.
    6 An estimate of the total public burden (in hours) associated with 
the collection: This collection was previously approved for 
implementation in both adult prisons and jails. The current request 
will only be implemented in adult prisons, thereby reducing the total 
number of facility staff and respondents required to participate. The 
total estimated NIS-4 public burden, inclusive of facility staff and 
respondent burden estimates, is 45,367 hours. This comprises 450 hours 
of facility staff burden and 44,917 hours of respondent interviewing 
burden.
    If additional information is required contact: Melody Braswell, 
Department Clearance Officer, United States Department of Justice, 
Justice Management Division, Policy and Planning Staff, Two 
Constitution Square, 145 N Street NE, 3E.405A, Washington, DC 20530.

    Dated: November 26, 2019.
Melody Braswell,
Department Clearance Officer for PRA, U.S. Department of Justice.
[FR Doc. 2019-25996 Filed 11-29-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4410-18-P