The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
is seeking clearance to conduct the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates
(SPI). The 2016 SPI will be a national, omnibus survey of prisoners
age 18 or older within the United States who are incarcerated in
confinement or community-based correctional facilities operated by
or for state or federal governments. BJS has been conducting SPI
periodically since the 1970s among state prisoners and the early
1990s among federal prisoners. A main purpose of this omnibus
survey is to generate reliable national estimates of the
characteristics of prisoners over a variety of domains, including
characteristics that are germane to the corrections field, such as
the severity of offenses committed and criminal history; medical,
mental health, and substance abuse and dependency problems;
behaviors in prison including both rule infractions and
participation in programs. Other important objectives of SPI are to
track changes in these characteristics over time, describe special
populations of prisoners, and identify policy-relevant changes in
the prison population. The 2016 survey will also be used to produce
subnational estimates of prisoners within jurisdictions that have
the largest prison populations (i.e., 100,000 or more) in the
nation. The 2016 data will be collected through personal interviews
with a representative sample of about 23,200 prisoners using
Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). The purpose of this
nonsubstantive change is to inform OMB of the results of a test of
the functionality of the CAPI survey instrument that has been
designed for the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates (SPI). OMB clearance
for the test and national 2016 SPI collection, ICR reference
#201505-1121-001, was approved on August 18, 2015. Based on
findings from the CAPI feasibility test, conducted on August 31 –
September 2, 2015, changes have been made to the CAPI instrument.
Many of the changes are associated with programming modifications;
other changes were identified through the experience of
administering the questionnaire to inmates that were sampled to
participate in the test. In addition to changes to the instrument,
the test offered an opportunity to examine inmates’ reactions to
the informed consent process. The test did not suggest any need to
alter the consent process; observations from the CAPI feasibility
test are described in this memorandum. Accounting for the changes
to the instrumentation and the opportunity to administer the
consent and survey. Minor changes in the burden are requested to
correctly reflect the number of respondents and total burden hours
that was originally proposed in the supporting statement.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Form NPS-25 Survey of Prison Inmates, 2016
Attachment E_2016 SPI Consent_ Track Changes_Clean.pdf
Non-substantive Changes to 2016 SPI_final memo.docx
Attachment A_passback revised_8-14-2015.doc
Survey of Prison Inmates, 2016