Introductory Letter for Forms 8 and 8A

December 31, 2009

Name

Title

DOC/Facility

Address1

Address2

City, State, Zip Code

Dear Name:

Once again it is time to collect information about persons under sentence of death in your jurisdiction. Enclosed are NPS-8 and NPS-8A forms for calendar year 2009. The Census Bureau collects these data for the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) under the authority of Title 42, U.S.C. § 3732. We assure you that all data provided for these inmates will be held in strict confidentiality, as provided under Title 42, U.S.C. § 3735 and § 3789g. The information that you provide makes it possible for us to disseminate statistics on capital punishment annually, and these statistics are among the most requested of BJS data collections.

While your participation in the collection of these data is voluntary, your assistance is extremely important. Because of your careful work and that of other data providers, our annual data collection is viewed as a reliable and accurate source of information on the administration of the death penalty in this country.

We have been developing an option that will allow you to submit your NPS-8 and NPS-8A forms online. We anticipate that reporting online will be more convenient and less time-consuming for many of our respondents. The online version will be available at https://respond.census.gov/nps8 beginning January 19, 2010. When you are ready to submit, please contact Colette Heiston or Steve Bittner at 1-800-221-1829, so they can provide you with the survey key you will need to access the online forms. We would greatly appreciate your participation and any feedback that you can provide.

If submitting your forms online is not feasible, please send the completed forms to the Census Bureau using the enclosed Fed Ex label.

Regardless of which submission option you choose, we would like to receive your forms not later than Return_date, 2010. If you have any questions or need any assistance, call Colette Heiston or Steve Bittner at the Census Bureau at 1-800-221-1829.

We estimate that your reporting burden will average 15 minutes per response, including the time needed to review instructions, search existing data sources, gather and maintain the data needed, and complete and review the collection of information. The approval of this data collection expires 09/30/2010. Send comments regarding this burden or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the Director, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington, DC 20531 and to the Office of Management and Budget, OMB No. 1121-0030, Washington, DC 20503.

I would like to thank you for participating in this data collection program. If we can help you meet your information needs, feel free to explore our web site at http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov or call us directly at (202) 307-0765.

Sincerely, Sincerely,

Tracy L. Snell, Statistician William J. Sabol, Ph.D., Chief

Corrections Statistics Program Corrections Statistics Program

Enclosure