The National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) data collection began in 1926 in response to a congressional mandate to gather information on persons incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Originally under the auspices of the U.S. Census Bureau, the collection moved to the Bureau of Prisons in 1950, and then in 1971 to the National Criminal Justice Information and Statistics Service, the precursor to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) which was established in 1979. From 1979 to 2013, the Census Bureau was the NPS data collection agent. In 2014, the collection was competitively bid in conjunction with the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP), since many of the respondents for NPS and NCRP are the same. The contract was awarded to Abt Associates, Inc. The NPS is administered to 51 respondents. Before 2001, the District of Columbia was also a respondent, but responsibility for housing the District of Columbia's sentenced prisoners was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and by yearend 2001 the District of Columbia no longer operated a prison system. The NPS provides an enumeration of persons in state and federal prisons and collects data on key characteristics of the nation's prison population. NPS has been adapted over time to keep pace with the changing information needs of the public, researchers, and federal, state, and local governments.

Overview

The Marshall Project, the nonprofit investigative newsroom dedicated to the U.S. criminal justice system, has partnered with The Associated Press to compile data on the prevalence of COVID-19 infection in prisons across the country. The Associated Press is sharing this data as the most comprehensive current national source of COVID-19 outbreaks in state and federal prisons.

Lawyers, criminal justice reform advocates and families of the incarcerated have worried about what was happening in prisons across the nation as coronavirus began to take hold in the communities outside. Data collected by The Marshall Project and AP shows that hundreds of thousands of prisoners, workers, correctional officers and staff have caught the illness as prisons became the center of some of the country’s largest outbreaks. And thousands of people — most of them incarcerated — have died.

In December, as COVID-19 cases spiked across the U.S., the news organizations also shared cumulative rates of infection among prison populations, to better gauge the total effects of the pandemic on prison populations. The analysis found that by mid-December, one in five state and federal prisoners in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus -- a rate more than four times higher than the general population.

This data, which is updated weekly, is an effort to track how those people have been affected and where the crisis has hit the hardest.

Methodology and Caveats

The data tracks the number of COVID-19 tests administered to people incarcerated in all state and federal prisons, as well as the staff in those facilities. It is collected on a weekly basis by Marshall Project and AP reporters who contact each prison agency directly and verify published figures with officials.

Each week, the reporters ask every prison agency for the total number of coronavirus tests administered to its staff members and prisoners, the cumulative number who tested positive among staff and prisoners, and the numbers of deaths for each group.

The time series data is aggregated to the system level; there is one record for each prison agency on each date of collection. Not all departments could provide data for the exact date requested, and the data indicates the date for the figures.

To estimate the rate of infection among prisoners, we collected population data for each prison system before the pandemic, roughly in mid-March, in April, June, July, August, September and October. Beginning the week of July 28, we updated all prisoner population numbers, reflecting the number of incarcerated adults in state or federal prisons. Prior to that, population figures may have included additional populations, such as prisoners housed in other facilities, which were not captured in our COVID-19 data. In states with unified prison and jail systems, we include both detainees awaiting trial and sentenced prisoners.

To estimate the rate of infection among prison employees, we collected staffing numbers for each system. Where current data was not publicly available, we acquired other numbers through our reporting, including calling agencies or from state budget documents. In six states, we were unable to find recent staffing figures: Alaska, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, Utah.

To calculate the cumulative COVID-19 impact on prisoner and prison worker populations, we aggregated prisoner and staff COVID case and death data up through Dec. 15. Because population snapshots do not account for movement in and out of prisons since March, and because many systems have significantly slowed the number of new people being sent to prison, it’s difficult to estimate the total number of people who have been held in a state system since March. To be conservative, we calculated our rates of infection using the largest prisoner population snapshots we had during this time period.

As with all COVID-19 data, our understanding of the spread and impact of the virus is limited by the availability of testing. Epidemiology and public health experts say that aside from a few states that have recently begun aggressively testing in prisons, it is likely that there are more cases of COVID-19 circulating undetected in facilities. Sixteen prison systems, including the Federal Bureau of Prisons, would not release information about how many prisoners they are testing.

Corrections departments in Indiana, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota and Wisconsin report coronavirus testing and case data for juvenile facilities; West Virginia reports figures for juvenile facilities and jails. For consistency of comparison with other state prison systems, we removed those facilities from our data that had been included prior to July 28. For these states we have also removed staff data. Similarly, Pennsylvania’s coronavirus data includes testing and cases for those who have been released on parole. We removed these tests and cases for prisoners from the data prior to July 28. The staff cases remain.

About the Data

There are four tables in this data:

• covid_prison_cases.csv contains weekly time series data on tests, infections and deaths in prisons. The first dates in the table are on March 26. Any questions that a prison agency could not or would not answer are left blank.

• prison_populations.csv contains snapshots of the population of people incarcerated in each of these prison systems for whom data on COVID testing and cases are available. This varies by state and may not always be the entire number of people incarcerated in each system. In some states, it may include other populations, such as those on parole or held in state-run jails. This data is primarily for use in calculating rates of testing and infection, and we would not recommend using these numbers to compare the change in how many people are being held in each prison system.

• staff_populations.csv contains a one-time, recent snapshot of the headcount of workers for each prison agency, collected as close to April 15 as possible.

• covid_prison_rates.csv contains the rates of cases and deaths for prisoners. There is one row for every state and federal prison system and an additional row with the National totals.

Queries

The Associated Press and The Marshall Project have created several queries to help you use this data:

Get your state's prison COVID data: Provides each week's data from just your state and calculates a cases-per-100000-prisoners rate, a deaths-per-100000-prisoners rate, a cases-per-100000-workers rate and a deaths-per-100000-workers rate here

Rank all systems' most recent data by cases per 100,000 prisoners here

Find what percentage of your state's total cases and deaths -- as reported by Johns Hopkins University -- occurred within the prison system here

Attribution

In stories, attribute this data to: “According to an analysis of state prison cases by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit investigative newsroom dedicated to the U.S. criminal justice system, and The Associated Press.”

Contributors

Many reporters and editors at The Marshall Project and The Associated Press contributed to this data, including: Katie Park, Tom Meagher, Weihua Li, Gabe Isman, Cary Aspinwall, Keri Blakinger, Jake Bleiberg, Andrew R. Calderón, Maurice Chammah, Andrew DeMillo, Eli Hager, Jamiles Lartey, Claudia Lauer, Nicole Lewis, Humera Lodhi, Colleen Long, Joseph Neff, Michelle Pitcher, Alysia Santo, Beth Schwartzapfel, Damini Sharma, Colleen Slevin, Christie Thompson, Abbie VanSickle, Adria Watson, Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

Questions

If you have questions about the data, please email The Marshall Project at info+covidtracker@themarshallproject.org or file a Github issue.

To learn more about AP's data journalism capabilities for publishers, corporations and financial institutions, go here or email kromano@ap.org.

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics Data in this collection examine the processing of federal offenders. The Cases Terminated files (Parts 1-3 and 25-28) contain information about defendants in criminal cases filed in the United States Federal District Court and terminated in the calendar year indicated. Defendants in criminal cases may either be individuals or corporations, and there is one record for each defendant in each case terminated. Information on court proceedings, date the case was filed, date the case was terminated, most serious charge, and reason for termination are included. The Docket and Reporting System files (Parts 4-7 and 31-34) include information on suspects in investigative matters that took an hour or more of a United States Attorney's time with one of the following outcomes: (1) the United States Attorney declined to prosecute, (2) the case was filed in Federal District Court, or (3) the matter was disposed by a United States magistrate. Codes for each disposition and change of status are also provided.The Pretrial Services data (Parts 8 and 22) present variables on the circuit, district, and office where the defendant was charged, type of action, year of birth and sex of the defendant, major offense charge, and results of initial and detention hearings. The Parole Decisions data (Part 9) contain information from various parole hearings such as court date, appeal action, reopening decision, sentence, severity, offense, and race and ethnicity of the defendant. The Offenders Under Supervision files (Parts 15-16 and 37-40) focus on convicted offenders sentenced to probation supervision and federal prisoners released to parole supervision. The Federal Prisoner files (Parts 18 and 20) supply data on when an offender entered and was released from confinement, as well as the amount of time served for any given offense.Years Produced: Annually.NACJD has prepared a resource guide for the Federal Justice Statistics Program.

This data collection includes tabulations of annual adult admissions to federal and state correctional institutions by race. Data are provided for the years 1926 to 1986 and include tabulations for prisons in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as federal prison totals and United States totals. The figures were derived from a voluntary reporting program in which each state, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons reported summary and detailed statistics as a part of the National Prisoner Statistics series. Individual state and United States population figures according to racial categories also are provided.

The Jails and Prisons sub-layer is part of the Emergency Law Enforcement Sector and the Critical Infrastructure Category. A Jail or Prison consists of any facility or location where individuals are regularly and lawfully detained against their will. This includes Federal and State prisons, local jails, and juvenile detention facilities, as well as law enforcement temporary holding facilities. Work camps, including camps operated seasonally, are included if they otherwise meet the definition. A Federal Prison is a facility operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the incarceration of individuals. A State Prison is a facility operated by a state, commonwealth, or territory of the US for the incarceration of individuals for a term usually longer than 1 year. A Juvenile Detention Facility is a facility for the incarceration of those who have not yet reached the age of majority (usually 18 years). A Local Jail is a locally administered facility that holds inmates beyond arraignment (usually 72 hours) and is staffed by municipal or county employees. A temporary holding facility, sometimes referred to as a "police lock up" or "drunk tank", is a facility used to detain people prior to arraignment. Locations that are administrative offices only are excluded from the dataset. This definition of Jails is consistent with that used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in their "National Jail Census", with the exception of "temporary holding facilities", which the DOJ excludes. Locations which function primarily as law enforcement offices are included in this dataset if they have holding cells. If the facility is enclosed with a fence, wall, or structure with a gate around the buildings only, the locations were depicted as "on entity" at the center of the facility. If the facility's buildings are not enclosed, the locations were depicted as "on entity" on the main building or "block face" on the correct street segment. Personal homes, administrative offices, and temporary locations are intended to be excluded from this dataset; however, some personal homes of constables are included due to the fact that many constables work out of their homes. TGS has made a concerted effort to include all correctional institutions. This dataset includes non license restricted data from the following federal agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Reclamation; U.S. Park Police; Federal Bureau of Prisons; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; National Park Service; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Law Enforcement dataset and the Correctional Institutions dataset were merged into one working file. TGS processed as one file and then separated for delivery purposes. With the merge of the Law Enforcement and the Correctional Institutions datasets, NAICS Codes & Descriptions were assigned based on the facility's main function which was determined by the entity's name, facility type, web research, and state supplied data. In instances where the entity's primary function is both law enforcement and corrections, the NAICS Codes and Descriptions are assigned based on the dataset in which the record is located (i.e., a facility that serves as both a Sheriff's Office and as a jail is designated as [NAICSDESCR]="SHERIFFS' OFFICES (EXCEPT COURT FUNCTIONS ONLY)" in the Law Enforcement layer and as [NAICSDESCR]="JAILS (EXCEPT PRIVATE OPERATION OF)" in the Correctional Institutions layer). Records with "-DOD" appended to the end of the [NAME] value are located on a military base, as defined by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) military installations and military range boundaries. "#" and "*" characters were automatically removed from standard fields that TGS populated. Double spaces were replaced by single spaces in these same fields. Text fields in this dataset have been set to all upper case to facilitate consistent database engine search results. All diacritics (e.g., the German umlaut or the Spanish tilde) have been replaced with their closest equivalent English character to facilitate use with database systems that may not support diacritics. The currentness of this dataset is indicated by the [CONTDATE] field. Based on the values in this field, the oldest record dates from 05/03/2006 and the newest record dates from 10/19/2009.

Homeland Security Use Cases: Use cases describe how the data may be used and help to define and clarify requirements. 1. A threat to cause the mass release of prisoners by an outside terrorist group has been identified. Steps need to be taken to provide extra security at the targeted prisons. 2. Massive civil unrest has resulted in a large number of arrests. Appropriate space is needed outside of the immediate area to house the arrested individuals. 3. Massive civil unrest has resulted in a large number of arrests. A "holding camp" has been established to hold those arrested. Trained security guards are needed to staff the holding camp. 4. A disaster has caused the need for an emergency labor force (e.g., sandbagging during a flood) and prisoners may fill that need. 5. Inmates may need to be evacuated, or appropriate steps may need to be taken at a prison to protect the inmates and to ensure that a disaster does not present an opportunity for escape.

Jails and Prisons (Correctional Institutions). The Jails and Prisons sub-layer is part of the Emergency Law Enforcement Sector and the Critical Infrastructure Category. A Jail or Prison consists of any facility or location where individuals are regularly and lawfully detained against their will. This includes Federal and State prisons, local jails, and juvenile detention facilities, as well as law enforcement temporary holding facilities. Work camps, including camps operated seasonally, are included if they otherwise meet the definition. A Federal Prison is a facility operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the incarceration of individuals. A State Prison is a facility operated by a state, commonwealth, or territory of the US for the incarceration of individuals for a term usually longer than 1 year. A Juvenile Detention Facility is a facility for the incarceration of those who have not yet reached the age of majority (usually 18 years). A Local Jail is a locally administered facility that holds inmates beyond arraignment (usually 72 hours) and is staffed by municipal or county employees. A temporary holding facility, sometimes referred to as a "police lock up" or "drunk tank", is a facility used to detain people prior to arraignment. Locations that are administrative offices only are excluded from the dataset. This definition of Jails is consistent with that used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in their "National Jail Census", with the exception of "temporary holding facilities", which the DOJ excludes. Locations which function primarily as law enforcement offices are included in this dataset if they have holding cells. If the facility is enclosed with a fence, wall, or structure with a gate around the buildings only, the locations were depicted as "on entity" at the center of the facility. If the facility's buildings are not enclosed, the locations were depicted as "on entity" on the main building or "block face" on the correct street segment. Personal homes, administrative offices, and temporary locations are intended to be excluded from this dataset; however, some personal homes of constables are included due to the fact that many constables work out of their homes. TGS has made a concerted effort to include all correctional institutions. This dataset includes non license restricted data from the following federal agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Reclamation; U.S. Park Police; Federal Bureau of Prisons; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; National Park Service; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This dataset is comprised completely of license free data. The Law Enforcement dataset and the Correctional Institutions dataset were merged into one working file. TGS processed as one file and then separated for delivery purposes. With the merge of the Law Enforcement and the Correctional Institutions datasets, NAICS Codes & Descriptions were assigned based on the facility's main function which was determined by the entity's name, facility type, web research, and state supplied data. In instances where the entity's primary function is both law enforcement and corrections, the NAICS Codes and Descriptions are assigned based on the dataset in which the record is located (i.e., a facility that serves as both a Sheriff's Office and as a jail is designated as [NAICSDESCR]="SHERIFFS' OFFICES (EXCEPT COURT FUNCTIONS ONLY)" in the Law Enforcement layer and as [NAICSDESCR]="JAILS (EXCEPT PRIVATE OPERATION OF)" in the Correctional Institutions layer). Records with "-DOD" appended to the end of the [NAME] value are located on a military base, as defined by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) military installations and military range boundaries. "#" and "*" characters were automatically removed from standard fields that TGS populated. Double spaces were replaced by sin

The National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) data collection began in 1926 in response to a congressional mandate to gather information on persons incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Originally under the auspices of the U.S. Census Bureau, the collection moved to the Bureau of Prisons in 1950, and then in 1971 to the National Criminal Justice Information and Statistics Service, the precursor to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) which was established in 1979. From 1979 to 2013, the Census Bureau was the NPS data collection agent. In 2014, the collection was competitively bid in conjunction with the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP), since many of the respondents for NPS and NCRP are the same. The contract was awarded to Abt Associates, Inc. The NPS is administered to 51 respondents. Before 2001, the District of Columbia was also a respondent, but responsibility for housing the District of Columbia's sentenced prisoners was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and by yearend 2001 the District of Columbia no longer operated a prison system. The NPS provides an enumeration of persons in state and federal prisons and collects data on key characteristics of the nation's prison population. NPS has been adapted over time to keep pace with the changing information needs of the public, researchers, and federal, state, and local governments.

Jails and Prisons (Correctional Institutions). The Jails and Prisons sub-layer is part of the Emergency Law Enforcement Sector and the Critical Infrastructure Category. A Jail or Prison consists of any facility or _location where individuals are regularly and lawfully detained against their will. This includes Federal and State prisons, local jails, and juvenile detention facilities, as well as law enforcement temporary holding facilities. Work camps, including camps operated seasonally, are included if they otherwise meet the definition. A Federal Prison is a facility operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the incarceration of individuals. A State Prison is a facility operated by a state, commonwealth, or territory of the US for the incarceration of individuals for a term usually longer than 1 year. A Juvenile Detention Facility is a facility for the incarceration of those who have not yet reached the age of majority (usually 18 years). A Local Jail is a locally administered facility that holds inmates beyond arraignment (usually 72 hours) and is staffed by municipal or county employees. A temporary holding facility, sometimes referred to as a "police lock up" or "drunk tank", is a facility used to detain people prior to arraignment. Locations that are administrative offices only are excluded from the dataset. This definition of Jails is consistent with that used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in their "National Jail Census", with the exception of "temporary holding facilities", which the DOJ excludes. Locations which function primarily as law enforcement offices are included in this dataset if they have holding cells. If the facility is enclosed with a fence, wall, or structure with a gate around the buildings only, the locations were depicted as "on entity" at the center of the facility. If the facility's buildings are not enclosed, the locations were depicted as "on entity" on the main building or "block face" on the correct street segment. Personal homes, administrative offices, and temporary locations are intended to be excluded from this dataset. TGS has made a concerted effort to include all correctional institutions. This dataset includes non license restricted data from the following federal agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Reclamation; U.S. Park Police; Federal Bureau of Prisons; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; National Park Service; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This dataset is comprised completely of license free data. The Law Enforcement dataset and the Correctional Institutions dataset were merged into one working file. TGS processed as one file and then separated for delivery purposes. With the merge of the Law Enforcement and the Correctional Institutions datasets, NAICS Codes & Descriptions were assigned based on the facility's main function which was determined by the entity's name, facility type, web research, and state supplied data. In instances where the entity's primary function is both law enforcement and corrections, the NAICS Codes and Descriptions are assigned based on the dataset in which the record is located (i.e., a facility that serves as both a Sheriff's Office and as a jail is designated as [NAICSDESCR]="SHERIFFS' OFFICES (EXCEPT COURT FUNCTIONS ONLY)" in the Law Enforcement layer and as [NAICSDESCR]="JAILS (EXCEPT PRIVATE OPERATION OF)" in the Correctional Institutions layer). Records with "-DOD" appended to the end of the [NAME] value are located on a military base, as defined by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) military installations and military range boundaries. "#" and "*" characters were automatically removed from standard fields that TGS populated. Double spaces were replaced by single spaces in these same fields. Text fields in this dataset have been set to all upper case to facilitate consistent database engine search results. All diacritics (e.g., the German umlaut or the Spanish tilde) have been replaced with their closest equivalent English character to facilitate use with database systems that may not support diacritics. The currentness of this dataset is indicated by the [CONTDATE] field. Based on the values in this field, the oldest record dates from 12/27/2004 and the newest record dates from 09/08/2009

Jails and Prisons (Correctional Institutions). The Jails and Prisons sub-layer is part of the Emergency Law Enforcement Sector and the Critical Infrastructure Category. A Jail or Prison consists of any facility or location where individuals are regularly and lawfully detained against their will. This includes Federal and State prisons, local jails, and juvenile detention facilities, as well as law enforcement temporary holding facilities. Work camps, including camps operated seasonally, are included if they otherwise meet the definition. A Federal Prison is a facility operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the incarceration of individuals. A State Prison is a facility operated by a state, commonwealth, or territory of the US for the incarceration of individuals for a term usually longer than 1 year. A Juvenile Detention Facility is a facility for the incarceration of those who have not yet reached the age of majority (usually 18 years). A Local Jail is a locally administered facility that holds inmates beyond arraignment (usually 72 hours) and is staffed by municipal or county employees. A temporary holding facility, sometimes referred to as a "police lock up" or "drunk tank", is a facility used to detain people prior to arraignment. Locations that are administrative offices only are excluded from the dataset. This definition of Jails is consistent with that used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in their "National Jail Census", with the exception of "temporary holding facilities", which the DOJ excludes. Locations which function primarily as law enforcement offices are included in this dataset if they have holding cells. If the facility is enclosed with a fence, wall, or structure with a gate around the buildings only, the locations were depicted as "on entity" at the center of the facility. If the facility's buildings are not enclosed, the locations were depicted as "on entity" on the main building or "block face" on the correct street segment. Personal homes, administrative offices, and temporary locations are intended to be excluded from this dataset; however, some personal homes of constables are included due to the fact that many constables work out of their homes. TGS has made a concerted effort to include all correctional institutions. This dataset includes non license restricted data from the following federal agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Reclamation; U.S. Park Police; Federal Bureau of Prisons; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; National Park Service; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This dataset is comprised completely of license free data. The Law Enforcement dataset and the Correctional Institutions dataset were merged into one working file. TGS processed as one file and then separated for delivery purposes. With the merge of the Law Enforcement and the Correctional Institutions datasets, NAICS Codes & Descriptions were assigned based on the facility's main function which was determined by the entity's name, facility type, web research, and state supplied data. In instances where the entity's primary function is both law enforcement and corrections, the NAICS Codes and Descriptions are assigned based on the dataset in which the record is located (i.e., a facility that serves as both a Sheriff's Office and as a jail is designated as [NAICSDESCR]="SHERIFFS' OFFICES (EXCEPT COURT FUNCTIONS ONLY)" in the Law Enforcement layer and as [NAICSDESCR]="JAILS (EXCEPT PRIVATE OPERATION OF)" in the Correctional Institutions layer). Records with "-DOD" appended to the end of the [NAME] value are located on a military base, as defined by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) military installations and military range boundaries. "#" and "*" characters were automatically removed from standard fields that TGS populated. Double spaces were replaced by single spaces in these same fields. Text fields in this dataset have been set to all upper case to facilitate consistent database engine search results. All diacritics (e.g., the German umlaut or the Spanish tilde) have been replaced with their closest equivalent English character to facilitate use with database systems that may not support diacritics. The currentness of this dataset is indicated by the [CONTDATE] field. Based on the values in this field, the oldest record dates from 12/07/2004 and the newest record dates from 10/22/2009

Summary: This is a collection of publicly reported data relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic scraped from state and federal prisons in the United States. Data are collected each night from every state and federal correctional agency’s site that has data available. Data from Massachusetts come directly from the ACLU Massachusetts COVID-19 website (https://data.aclum.org/sjc-12926-tracker/), not the Massachusetts DOC website. Data from a small number of states come from Recidiviz (https://www.recidiviz.org/) whose team manually collects data from these states. Not all dates are available for some states due to websites being down or changes to the website that cause some data to be missed by the scraper.The data primarily cover the number of people incarcerated in these facilities who have tested positive, negative, recovered, and have died from COVID-19. Many - but not all - states also provide this information for staff members. This dataset includes every variable that any state makes available. While there are dozens of variables in the data, most apply to only a small number of states or a single state.The data is primarily at the facility-date unit, meaning that each row represents a single prison facility on a single date. The date is the date we scraped the data (we do so each night between 9pm-3am EST) and not necessarily the date the data was updated. While many states update daily, some do so less frequently. As such, you may see some dates for certain states contain the same values. A small number of states do not provide facility-level data, or do so for only a subset of all the variables they make available. In these cases we have also collected state-level data and made that available separately. Please note: When facility data is available, the state-level file combines the aggregated facility-level data with any state-level data that is available. You should therefore use this file when doing a state-level analysis instead of aggregating the facility-level data, as some states report values only at the state level (these states may still have some data at the facility-level), and some states report cumulative numbers at the state level but do not report them at the facility level. As a result, when we identify this, we typically add the cumulative information to the state level file. The state level file is still undergoing quality checks and will be released soon.These data were scraped from nearly all state and federal prison websites that make their data available each night for several months, and we continue to collect data. Over time some states have changed what variables are available, both adding and removing some variables, as well as the definition of variables. For all states and time periods you are using this data for, please carefully examine the data to detect these kinds of issues. We have spent extensive time doing a careful check of the data to remove any issues we find, primarily ones that could be caused by a scraper not working properly. However, please check all data for issues before using it. Contact us at covidprisondata@gmail.com to let us know if you find any issues, have questions, or if you would like to collaborate on research.

Jails and Prisons (Correctional Institutions). The Jails and Prisons sub-layer is part of the Emergency Law Enforcement Sector and the Critical Infrastructure Category. A Jail or Prison consists of any facility or location where individuals are regularly and lawfully detained against their will. This includes Federal and State prisons, local jails, and juvenile detention facilities, as well as law enforcement temporary holding facilities. Work camps, including camps operated seasonally, are included if they otherwise meet the definition. A Federal Prison is a facility operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the incarceration of individuals. A State Prison is a facility operated by a state, commonwealth, or territory of the US for the incarceration of individuals for a term usually longer than 1 year. A Juvenile Detention Facility is a facility for the incarceration of those who have not yet reached the age of majority (usually 18 years). A Local Jail is a locally administered facility that holds inmates beyond arraignment (usually 72 hours) and is staffed by municipal or county employees. A temporary holding facility, sometimes referred to as a "police lock up" or "drunk tank", is a facility used to detain people prior to arraignment. Locations that are administrative offices only are excluded from the dataset. This definition of Jails is consistent with that used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in their "National Jail Census", with the exception of "temporary holding facilities", which the DOJ excludes. Locations which function primarily as law enforcement offices are included in this dataset if they have holding cells. If the facility is enclosed with a fence, wall, or structure with a gate around the buildings only, the locations were depicted as "on entity" at the center of the facility. If the facility's buildings are not enclosed, the locations were depicted as "on entity" on the main building or "block face" on the correct street segment. Personal homes, administrative offices, and temporary locations are intended to be excluded from this dataset; however, some personal homes of constables are included due to the fact that many constables work out of their homes. TGS has made a concerted effort to include all correctional institutions. This dataset includes non license restricted data from the following federal agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Reclamation; U.S. Park Police; Federal Bureau of Prisons; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; National Park Service; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This dataset is comprised completely of license free data. The Law Enforcement dataset and the Correctional Institutions dataset were merged into one working file. TGS processed as one file and then separated for delivery purposes. With the merge of the Law Enforcement and the Correctional Institutions datasets, NAICS Codes & Descriptions were assigned based on the facility's main function which was determined by the entity's name, facility type, web research, and state supplied data. In instances where the entity's primary function is both law enforcement and corrections, the NAICS Codes and Descriptions are assigned based on the dataset in which the record is located (i.e., a facility that serves as both a Sheriff's Office and as a jail is designated as [NAICSDESCR]="SHERIFFS' OFFICES (EXCEPT COURT FUNCTIONS ONLY)" in the Law Enforcement layer and as [NAICSDESCR]="JAILS (EXCEPT PRIVATE OPERATION OF)" in the Correctional Institutions layer). Records with "-DOD" appended to the end of the [NAME] value are located on a military base, as defined by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) military installations and military range boundaries. "#" and "*" characters were automatically removed from standard fields that TGS populated. Double spaces were replaced by single spaces in these same fields. Text fields in this dataset have been set to all upper case to facilitate consistent database engine search results. All diacritics (e.g., the German umlaut or the Spanish tilde) have been replaced with their closest equivalent English character to facilitate use with database systems that may not support diacritics. The currentness of this dataset is indicated by the [CONTDATE] field. Based on the values in this field, the oldest record dates from 04/26/2006 and the newest record dates from 10/19/2009

The 2019 Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities (CCF) was the ninth enumeration of state institutions and the sixth enumeration of federal institutions sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and its predecessors. Earlier censuses were completed in 1979 (ICPSR 7852), 1984 (ICPSR 8444), 1990 (ICPSR 9908), 1995 (ICPSR 6953), 2000 (ICPSR 4021), 2005 (ICPSR 24642), and 2012 (ICPSR 37294). The 2019 CCF consisted of two data collection instruments - one for confinement facilities and one for community-based facilities. For each facility, information was provided on facility operator; sex of prisoners authorized to be housed by facility; facility functions; percentage of prisoners authorized to leave the facility; one-day counts of prisoners by sex, race/ethnicity, special populations, and holding authority; number of walkaways occurring over a one-year period; and educational and other special programs offered to prisoners. Additional information was collected from confinement facilities, including physical security level; housing for special populations; capacity; court orders for specific conditions; one-day count of correctional staff by payroll status and sex; one-day count of security staff by sex and race/ethnicity; assaults and incidents caused by prisoners; number of escapes occurring over a one-year period; and work assignments available to prisoners. Late in the data collection to avoid complete nonresponse from facilities, BJS offered the option of providing critical data elements from the two data collection instruments. These elements included facility operator; sex of prisoners authorized to be housed by facility; facility functions; percentage of prisoners authorized to leave the facility; one-day counts of prisoners by sex, and holding authority. Physical security level was an additional critical data element for confinement facilities. The census counted prisoners held in the facilities, a custody count. Some prisoners who are held in the custody of one jurisdiction may be under the authority of a different jurisdiction. The custody count is distinct from a count of prisoners under a correctional authority's jurisdiction, which includes all prisoners over whom a correctional authority exercises control, regardless of where the prisoner is housed. A jurisdictional count is more inclusive than a prison custody count and includes state and federal prisoners housed in local jails or other non-correctional facilities.

RECIDIVISM OF PRISONERS RELEASED IN 1994 is a database containing information on each of 38,624 sampled prisoners released from prisons in 15 states in 1994 and tracked for three years following their release. The majority of the database consists of information on each released prisoner's entire officially recorded criminal history (before and after the 1994 release). Sources for criminal history information are state and FBI automated RAP ("Records of Arrests and Prosecutions") sheets, which contain records of arrests, adjudications, and sentences. The study is the second major recidivism study conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The first study, RECIDIVISM AMONG RELEASED PRISONERS, 1983: UNITED STATES, tracked over 16,000 prisoners released in 11 states in 1983 for three years. These two studies are the closest approximation to "national" recidivism studies in the United States. They are distinguished by their large sample size (over 16,000 released prisoners in the first study, 38,624 in the second), geographic breadth of coverage (11 states in the first study, 15 in the second), length of prospective tracking (three years from date of release in both studies), ability to track the movement of released prisoners across state boundaries (both studies), and multiple measures of recidivism (both studies). Demographic data include race, ethnicity, sex, and date of birth.

This data collection includes tabulations of annual adult admissions to federal and state correctional institutions by gender for the years 1926 through 1987. The two data files have identical structures: Part 1 includes information on male admissions, and Part 2 includes information on female admissions. The 3,348 cases in each part include one case for each of the 62 years of the collection for each of the following 54 categories: the 50 states, the District of Columbia, federal institutional totals, state cumulative totals, and United States totals (the sum of the federal and state cumulative totals). The figures were drawn from a voluntary reporting program in which each state, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons reported summary and detailed statistics, as part of the National Prisoner Statistics reporting series. Each file also includes individual state and United States general population figures.

This data collection provides annual data on prisoners under a sentence of death and on those whose offense sentences were commuted or vacated. Information is available on basic sociodemographic characteristics such as age, sex, race and ethnicity, marital status at time of imprisonment, level of education, and state of incarceration. Criminal history data include prior felony convictions for criminal homicide and legal status at the time of the capital offense. Additional information is provided on those inmates removed from death row by yearend 1988 and those inmates who were executed.

The Annual Survey of Jails (ASJ) is the only data collection effort that provides an annual source of data on local jails and jail inmates. Data on the size of the jail population and selected inmate characteristics are obtained every five to six years from the Census of Jails. In each of the years between the full censuses, a sample survey of jails is conducted to estimate baseline characteristics of the nation's jails and inmates housed in these jails. The 2009 Annual Survey of Jails is the 22nd such survey in a series begun in 1982. The ASJ supplies data on characteristics of jails such as admissions and releases, growth in the number of jail facilities, changes in their rated capacities and level of occupancy, growth in the population supervised in the community, changes in methods of community supervision, and crowding issues. The ASJ also provides information on changes in the demographics of the jail population, supervision status of persons held, and a count of non-citizens in custody. The data presented in this study were collected in the Annual Survey of Jails, 2009. These data are used to track growth in the number of jails and the capacities nationally, changes in the demographics of the jail population and supervision status of persons held, the prevalence of crowding issues, and a count of non-United States citizens within the jail population. The data are intended for a variety of users, including federal and state agencies, local officials in conjunction with jail administrators, researchers, planners, and the public. The reference date for the survey is June 30, 2009.

This data collection supplies annual data on the size of the prison population and the size of the general population in the United States for the period 1925 to 1986. These yearend counts include tabulations for prisons in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the federal prisons, and are intended to provide a measure of the overall size of the prison population. The figures were provided from a voluntary reporting program in which each state, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons reported summary statistics as part of the statistical information on prison populations in the United States.

The U.S. government does not release jail by jail mortality data, keeping the public and policy makers in the dark about facilities with high rates of death. In a first-of-its-kind accounting, Reuters obtained and is releasing that data to the public.

What if the jail in your community had an outsized death rate, but no one knew? For decades, communities across the country have faced that quandary. The Justice Department collects jail death data, but locks the information away, leaving policymakers, investigators and activists unaware of problem facilities.

Reuters journalists filed more than 1,500 public records requests to gain death data from 2008 to 2019 in the nation’s biggest jails. Today, jail by jail and state by state, it is making that information available to the public. Reuters examined every large jail in the United States, those with 750 or more inmates. And, to ensure it examined deaths across the country, it obtained data for the 10 largest jails in each state. The data covers 523 jails or jail systems.

Original Data

Acknowlegement

Foto von Hasan Almasi auf Unsplash

This dataset lists the total population 18 years and older by census block in Connecticut before and after population adjustments were made pursuant to Public Act 21-13. PA 21-13 creates a process to adjust the U.S. Census Bureau population data to allow for most individuals who are incarcerated to be counted at their address before incarceration. Prior to enactment of the act, these inmates were counted at their correctional facility address. The act requires the CT Office of Policy and Management (OPM) to prepare and publish the adjusted and unadjusted data by July 1 in the year after the U.S. census is taken or 30 days after the U.S. Census Bureau’s publication of the state’s data. A report documenting the population adjustment process was prepared by a team at OPM composed of the Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division (OPM CJPPD) and the Data and Policy Analytics (DAPA) unit. The report is available here: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/OPM/CJPPD/CjAbout/SAC-Documents-from-2021-2022/PA21-13_OPM_Summary_Report_20210921.pdf Note: On September 21, 2021, following the initial publication of the report, OPM and DOC revised the count of juveniles, reallocating 65 eighteen-year-old individuals who were incorrectly designated as being under age 18. After the DOC released the updated data to OPM, the report and this dataset were updated to reflect the revision.

The Wethersfield State Prison opened in September 1827 with the transfer of eighty-one prisoners from Newgate Prison. Modeled after the state-of-the-art Auburn State Prison in New York, Wethersfield provided solitary confinement for the prisoners and facilities for various workshops. In 1963, all prisoners from Wethersfield were transferred to a new State Prison at Somers and two years later Wethersfield State Prison was demolished.

The Warrants of Commitment, 1800-1903, contain the name of the prisoner, any known aliases, the crime, sentence, court, and date of incarceration. This information can be used to determine the probable location of court records relating to the individual prisoners.

People may request a copy of a file by contacting the staff of the History & Genealogy Unit by telephone (860) 757-6580 or email. When requesting a copy of a record, please include at least the name of the individual and date.