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REPORTNUM:   GAO-00-5337R						        

TITLE:     Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and State
Prisons and Local Jails

DATE:   04/07/2005 
				                                                                         
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GAO-00-5337R

United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548

April 7, 2005

The Honorable John N. Hostettler

Chairman, Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims
Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives

The Honorable Steve King House of Representatives

The Honorable Melissa Hart House of Representatives

Subject: Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and State
Prisons and Local Jails

When the United States incarcerates criminal aliens-noncitizens convicted
of crimes while in this country legally or illegally-in federal and state
prisons and local jails, the federal government bears much of the costs.
It pays to incarcerate criminal aliens in federal prisons and reimburses
state and local governments for a portion of their costs of incarcerating
some, but not all, criminal aliens illegally in the country through the
Department of Justice's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP)
managed by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Some state and local
governments have expressed concerns about the impact that criminal aliens
have on already overcrowded prisons and jails and that the federal
government reimburses them for only a portion of their costs of
incarcerating criminal aliens.

You requested that we provide information concerning criminal aliens
incarcerated at the federal, state, and local level. For the criminal
aliens incarcerated in federal prisons, and for criminal aliens for which
state and local governments received reimbursement through SCAAP, this
report addresses the following questions:

o  For recent years, how many criminal aliens were incarcerated?

o  	What is the country of citizenship or country of birth of these
criminal alien inmates?

o  What are the estimated costs of incarcerating criminal aliens?

To obtain information to answer these objectives, we analyzed population
and cost data from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on criminal aliens
incarcerated in federal prisons. We analyzed data on criminal aliens
submitted to BJA by state and local governments seeking reimbursement
under SCAAP and incarceration cost data from the 5 states and 5 local
jails that incarcerated the largest number of criminal aliens reimbursed
through SCAAP in fiscal year 2003. This methodology was used because there
was no reliable population and incarceration cost data on criminal aliens
incarcerated in all state prisons and local jails. Our data represent only
a portion of the total population of criminal aliens who may be
incarcerated at the state and local level, since SCAAP does not reimburse
states and localities for all criminal aliens.

To assess the reliability of the data, we discussed the data collection
methods and internal control processes for ensuring data quality with
responsible officials and staff, reviewed the data and information for
reasonableness, and reviewed relevant audits and evaluations related to
the data. We found that the data we used for our analyses were
sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report.

In March 2005, we discussed with your offices the results of our work.
This document conveys the information provided during those discussions
(see encl. I). We also plan to issue a report on the number and types of
crimes committed by criminal aliens and the coordination between federal
and local law enforcement agencies to identify criminal aliens.

We performed our work from January 2004 through March 2005 in

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

Further details on our scope and methodology are discussed in enclosure

II.

The briefing slides in enclosure I address each of our three questions for
the federal, state, and local level. In summary, we found the following:

o  	At the federal level, the number of criminal aliens incarcerated
increased from about 42,000 at the end of calendar year 2001 to about
49,000 at the end of calendar year 2004-a 15 percent increase. The
percentage of all federal prisoners who are criminal aliens has remained
the same over the last 3 years-about 27 percent. The majority of criminal
aliens incarcerated at the end of calendar year 2004 were identified as
citizens of Mexico. We estimate the federal cost of incarcerating criminal
aliens- BOP's cost to incarcerate criminals and reimbursements to state
and local

                                    Results

governments under SCAAP-totaled approximately $5.8 billion for calendar
years 2001 through 2004. BOP's cost to incarcerate criminal aliens rose
from about $950 million in 2001 to about $1.2 billion in 2004-a 14 percent
increase. Federal reimbursements for incarcerating criminal aliens in
state prisons and local jails declined from $550 million in 2001 to $280
million in 2004, in a large part due to a reduction in congressional
appropriations.

o  	At the state level, the 50 states received reimbursement for
incarcerating about 77,000 criminal aliens in fiscal year 2002 and 47
states received reimbursement for incarcerating about 74,000 in fiscal
year 2003.1 For the 5 states incarcerating about 80 percent of these
criminal aliens in fiscal year 2003, 2 about 68 percent incarcerated in
midyear 2004 reported that the country of citizenship or country of birth
as Mexico, the Dominican Republic, or Cuba. We estimate that 4 of these 5
states spent about $1.6 billion to incarcerate criminal aliens reimbursed
through SCAAP during fiscal years 2002 and 2003.3 We estimate that the
federal government reimbursed these four states about 25 percent or less
of the estimated cost to incarcerate these criminal aliens in fiscal years
2002 and 2003.

o  	At the local level, in fiscal year 2002, SCAAP reimbursed about 750
local governments for incarcerating about 138,000 criminal aliens. In
fiscal year 2003, SCAAP reimbursed about 700 local governments for about
147,000 criminal aliens, with 5 local jail systems4 accounting for about
30 percent of these criminal aliens. The 147,000 criminal aliens
incarcerated during fiscal year 2003 spent a total of about 8.5 million
days in jail. Mexico leads as the country of birth for foreign-born
arrestees at these 5 local jails in fiscal year 2003. We estimate that 4
of these 5 local jails spent an estimated $390 million in fiscal years
2002 and 2003 to incarcerate criminal aliens and were reimbursed about $73
million through SCAAP. We estimate that the federal government reimbursed
these localities about 25 percent or less of the estimated criminal alien
incarceration cost in fiscal years 2002 and 2003.

1In fiscal year 2003, Illinois, Montana, and Oregon did not submit claims
for reimbursement.

2The five states are Arizona, California, Florida, New York, and Texas.

3We omitted Texas from our analysis since fiscal year 2003 cost data were
not available. Texas spent about $130 million in fiscal year 2002 to
incarcerate SCAAP criminal aliens.

4The five local jails are Maricopa County, Arizona; Los Angeles County,
California; Orange County, California; New York City, New York; and Harris
County, Texas.

Agency Comments and We requested comments on a draft of this report from
Departments of

Our Evaluation 	Justice and Homeland Security. The Departments of Justice
and Homeland Security had no comments.

As we agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents
of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution of it until 30
days
from the date of this letter. We will then send copies to the Departments
of
Justice and Homeland Security, other interested congressional
committees, and make copies available to others who request them. In
addition, the report will be available at no charge on GAO's Web site at
http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff have any questions concerning this report, please
contact me at (202) 512-8816 or by e-mail at [email protected] or Michael
Dino, Assistant Director, at (213) 830-1150 or [email protected]. Key
contributors to this report were Amy Bernstein, Ann H. Finley, Evan
Gilman, Frederick Lyles, Karen O'Conor, Jason Schwartz, and
Carla Wilhoit.

Sincerely yours,

Richard M. Stana, Director
Homeland Security and Justice Issues

Enclosures

                          Enclosure I: Briefing Slides

                          Enclosure I: Briefing Slides

                                 DefinitionTerm                               
A subgroup of criminal aliens: noncitizens illegally in the United States  
at the time of incarceration for whom state and local jurisdictions        
received federal reimbursement through SCAAP; the aliens must meet         
specific legal requirements. SCAAP criminal aliens Noncitizens who are     
residing in the United States legally or illegally and convicted of a      
crime. Criminal aliens Any person who is not a citizen of the United       
States.Alien                                                               
Any person who is not born in the United States; includes individuals who  
      may be naturalized United States citizens. Foreign-born individuals     

                          Enclosure I: Briefing Slides

                          Enclosure I: Briefing Slides

                          Enclosure I: Briefing Slides

                          Enclosure I: Briefing Slides

                Enclosure II: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

At the federal level, to determine the number of criminal aliens
incarcerated and their country of citizenship, we analyzed data1 provided
by BOP on the number of criminal aliens incarcerated in federal prison on
December 30, 2001, December 29, 2002; December 27, 2003; and December 25,
2004. To identify the country of citizenship for these criminal aliens, we
analyzed country of citizenship data provided by BOP at year-end 2004. To
estimate the cost of incarcerating criminal aliens, we obtained data from
BOP on the average yearly cost to incarcerate an inmate and multiplied
that by the number of criminal aliens incarcerated at the end of each
year. According to BOP officials, the cost of incarcerating criminal
aliens is the same as the cost of incarcerating U.S. citizen inmates. In
addition, we analyzed BJA data on the federal reimbursements to state and
local governments under SCAAP in fiscal years 2001 through 2004. To
calculate the total federal cost, we added the BOP and BJA costs for each
calendar year.

At the state level, to estimate the number of criminal aliens
incarcerated, we analyzed data on criminal aliens incarcerated in state
prisons for whom states received SCAAP reimbursement in fiscal years 2002
and 2003. All 50 states submitted criminal aliens to BJA for SCAAP
reimbursements in fiscal year 2002. Forty-seven states submitted criminal
aliens to BJA for reimbursements in fiscal year 2003.2 To determine the
country of birth, we analyzed data provided by the correction departments
of the 5 states that incarcerated about 80 percent of the criminal alien
population reimbursed by SCAAP in fiscal year 2003-Arizona, California,
Florida, New York, and Texas. To estimate the cost of incarceration in
fiscal years 2002 and 2003, we obtained the average daily cost to
incarcerate an inmate from 4 of these 5 states.3 We calculated the
estimated incarceration costs by multiplying the number of days the
criminal aliens reimbursed by SCAAP were incarcerated in fiscal years 2002
and 2003 by the average daily cost of incarceration. According to
officials from each of these 5 states, the cost of incarcerating criminal
aliens is the same as the cost of incarcerating U.S. citizen inmates.

1Includes BOP prisons, contract community corrections facilities,
Intergovernmental Agreement long-term contract facilities, and privately
managed BOP facilities. This information does not include inmates in
transit, in the witness security program, or immigration detainees.

2Illinois, Montana, and Oregon did not submit undocumented criminal aliens
to BJA for SCAAP reimbursements in fiscal year 2003.

3Cost of incarceration data were not available from the state of Texas in
fiscal year 2003.

Enclosure II: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

At the local level, to estimate the number of criminal aliens
incarcerated, we analyzed data on criminal aliens incarcerated in local
jails for which local governments received SCAAP reimbursement in fiscal
years 2002 and 2003. Seven hundred and fifty-two local jurisdictions
submitted criminal aliens to BJA for SCAAP reimbursements in fiscal year
2002, and 698 submitted criminal aliens to BJA in fiscal year 2003. To
determine the country of birth, we obtained data on the number of
foreign-born persons arrested at 5 local jails that accounted for about 30
percent of SCAAP criminal aliens in fiscal year 2003--Maricopa County,
Arizona; Los Angeles County, California; Orange County, California; New
York City, New York; and Harris County, Texas from a Department of
Homeland Security contractor prepared study.4 To estimate the cost of
incarceration, we analyzed fiscal year 2002 and 2003 incarceration data
from 4 of these 5 local jails.5 We calculated the estimated incarceration
costs by multiplying the number of days the criminal aliens reimbursed by
SCAAP were incarcerated in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 by the average daily
cost of incarceration. According to officials from each of these 5 local
jurisdictions, the cost of incarcerating criminal alien inmates is the
same as the cost of incarcerating U.S. citizen inmates.

BOP data are sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report. To
assess the reliability of the data, we discussed with responsible BOP
officials how data on the number of federal inmates and their country of
citizenship are collected and maintained in BOP's inmate tracking system
called SENTRY. We reviewed BOP policies and procedures related to entering
data into the SENTRY system and reviewed a Department of Justice Inspector
General review of the SENTRY system. We discussed with BOP officials their
methodology for estimating the yearly cost to incarcerate an inmate and
obtained related documentation.

SCAAP data are sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report. To
assess the reliability of the SCAAP data, we discussed with the
responsible BJA officials how data on criminal aliens reimbursed through
SCAAP are collected and maintained. We reviewed BJA SCAAP policies and
procedures and guidance on how state and local jurisdictions can apply

Data Reliability

4U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Bureau of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, Institutional Removal Program National Workload
Study, (Washington, D.C.: September 2004).

5Cost of incarceration data was not available for Harris County, Texas in
fiscal year 2002.

Enclosure II: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

for reimbursement under the program. State and local jurisdictions submit
inmates to BJA for reimbursement based on the inmates self-reporting their
country of citizenship or place of birth. The state and local
jurisdictions certify they have exercised due diligence in determining
which inmates to submit for reimbursement, the cost associated with
incarceration, and the number of days an inmate was incarcerated. The
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the Department of
Homeland Security attempts to verify the immigration status of the inmates
using various federal immigration databases to ensure only eligible
inmates are reimbursed through SCAAP. Inmates known or believed to be
illegally in the country are then reimbursed through SCAAP.

The data collected from the 5 state correction departments are
sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report. We discussed with
state corrections officials how inmate data on country of citizenship or
birth are collected and maintained. We also discussed with them and
obtained related documentation regarding their methodology for calculating
the average daily cost of incarceration.

The data collected from the 4 local jails are sufficiently reliable for
the purposes of this report. We discussed with officials from the 4 local
jails their methodology for calculating the average daily cost of
incarceration and obtained related documentation.

For the Department of Homeland Security's Institutional Removal Program
National Workload Study data on country of birth for foreignborn
arrestees, we reviewed the study's methodology and discussed data
collection and analysis with the study's authors. These data represent
foreign-born inmates, who may include some naturalized U.S. citizens who
are not considered to be criminal aliens. This study is not generalizable
to all local jails. However, the data are sufficiently reliable for the
purposes of this report.

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