U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Assessing the Accuracy of State Prisoner Statistics

NCJ Number
173413
Author(s)
Patrick A Langan Ph.D.; David J. Levin
Date Published
February 1999
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This document reports on a wide array of statistics routinely compiled and disseminated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) that describe persons sentenced to State prisons during the year.
Abstract

Reports on a wide array of statistics routinely compiled and disseminated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) that describe persons sentenced to State prisons during the year. Prisoner characteristics are available in two different sources; State prison records and State court records. This report investigates the extent to which prisoner characteristics from one source match those from the other. Results of the investigation indicate a close correspondence between court and prison records.