[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 69 (Thursday, April 9, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19957-19958]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-07475]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Office of Justice Programs

[OMB Number 1121-NEW]


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

AGENCY: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, 
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 
June 8, 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. A new OMB number is needed, as this 
collection was previously under 1121-0311 with the collection of prison 
data. They are now two separate collections.
    2. The Title of the Form/Collection: National Inmate Survey in 
Jails (NIS-4J).
    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

[[Page 19958]]

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 
jail facilities.
    The survey instrument for the NIS-4 in Jails 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 jail facility. 
These incident-specific questions will provide information to the 
public on the nature of sexual victimization in jails, 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 2021, 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 
prisons is not included in this request, the overall number of burden 
hours is lower than in the last request approved in 2010. It is 
estimated that 225 facility respondents will devote 260 minutes of time 
to this coordination effort. During data collection in 2021, jail staff 
will escort an estimated 44,335 jail inmates to/from the interviews, 
which consists of a short consent administration and an approximately 
35 minute survey.
    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 jails, thereby reducing the total 
number of facility staff and respondents required to participate. The 
total estimated NIS-4 Jails public burden, inclusive of facility staff 
and respondent burden estimates, is 43,982 hours. This comprises 12,061 
hours of facility staff burden and 31,921 hours of respondent 
interviewing burden. This burden estimate assumes 100% participation 
from both facilities and inmates, but historically both facility and 
inmate participation have not reached 100%. We expect an inmate 
response rate of approximately 62%.
    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: April 6, 2020.
Melody Braswell,
Department Clearance Officer for PRA, U.S. Department of Justice.
[FR Doc. 2020-07475 Filed 4-8-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4410-18-P