Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 1995,series NCJ 166582.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/correct.htm

*Terms

Confinement institutions are facilities in which lessthan 50% of the inmates are regularly permitted to leave thepremises unaccompanied by staff. Community-based institutionsare facilities in which 50% or more of the inmates are regularlypermitted to leave the premises unaccompanied. Confinementfacilities include institutions for general adult populationconfinement: boot camps; reception, diagnosis, andclassification centers; prison hospitals; alcohol and drugtreatment centers; and youthful offender facilities.

Community-based facilities include halfway houses, restitutioncenters, and prerelease, work release, and study release centers

*Methodology

The 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult CorrectionalFacilities was the fifth enumeration of State institutions andthe second of Federal institutions sponsored by the Bureau ofJustice Statistics. Earlier censuses were completed in 1974,1979, 1984, and 1990.

The facility universe was developed from the Census of State andFederal Adult Correctional Facilities conducted in 1990. Eachdepartment of corrections was contacted to identify newfacilities and facilities that had been closed since June 30,1990. Telephone follow-ups with data providers were carried outin the fall of 1995 and resulted in a final response rate of100%.

Facilities were included in the census if they were staffed withFederal, State, local, or private employees; housed primarilyState or Federal prisoners; were physically, functionally, andadministratively separate from other facilities; and wereoperational on June 30, 1995. The census also included 110private facilities under exclusive contract to State governmentsor to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house prisoners.

The Census included the following types of State and Federaladult correctional facilities: prisons; prison farms; reception,diagnostic and classification centers; road camps; forestry andconservation camps; youthful offender facilities (except inCalifornia); vocational training facilities; drug and alcoholtreatment facilities; and State-operated local detentionfacilities in Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, RhodeIsland, and Vermont. (Of these six States only Alaska had somelocally administered correctional facilities _ five local jails.)

Jails and other local regional detention facilities, includingthose housing State prisoners, were specifically excluded fromthe census, as were private facilities not exclusively for Stateor Federal inmates. Also excluded were facilities for themilitary, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Bureau ofIndian Affairs, U.S. Marshals Service, and correctionalhospital wards not operated by correctional authorities.

Correctional facilities were classified as community-based if50% or more of the residents were regularly permitted to leave,unaccompanied, to work or study. These facilities includedhalfway houses, restitution centers, and prerelease, workrelease, and study release centers. Correctional facilities inwhich less than 50% of the inmates regularly left the facilityunaccompanied were classified as confinement institutions.

Because the census was a complete enumerationthe results were not subject to sampling error. The census counted prisoners held in the facilities, a custodycount, rather than prisoners over whom correctional authoritiesexercised control, a jurisdictional count.

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