Memo

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice
______________________________________________________________________________
Washington, DC 20531

To:

Joe Nye
Policy Analyst
Office of Management and Budget
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Through:

Melody Braswell
Department Clearance Officer
U.S. Department of Justice
Justice Management Division
Policy and Planning Staff

From:

Benjamin Adams
Senior Advisor
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice

Date:

May 17, 2022

Re:

Non-Substantive Change Memo for Juvenile Residential Facility Census (OMB
No. 1121-0219)

This memo requests non-substantive changes to the data collection form CJ-15 for the Juvenile
Residential Facility Census (OMB No. 1121-0219, expiration 11/30/2023). The changes include
removing questions focused on facility practices during the (COVID-19) pandemic (Section 8)
that were previously approved by OMB as part of a revision in November 2020.
In addition, several other non-substantive changes are outlined below. They include minor
changes to the wording of instructions; minor changes to clarify language on certain
questionnaire items; addition of response options that were high frequency write-in responses
(i.e., “other, specify” responses); and deletion of an item on large muscle activity in facilities
which is no longer relevant.
These non-substantive changes are informed by recommendations from the cognitive and pilot
test of the redesigned survey instrumentation and data collection protocols for future studies of
the Juvenile Residential Facility Census (JRFC) and Census of Juveniles in Residential
Placement (CJRP) that was approved under the OJJDP generic information clearance for design
and testing activities (OMB No: 1121-0360). OJJDP and NIJ anticipate a more comprehensive
revision request to the CJ-15 form in a future collection cycle. The non-substantive changes
requested below will decrease respondent burden due to the removal of the COVID-19 section.

1. Response options regarding COVID-19 were removed in question 5.c and replaced with a
new response option reading “No juveniles in facility on Wednesday, October 26, 2022”.

2.

Instruction on page 3 of the form were altered because Section 8 (COVID items) will be
removed. The instructions for ending the survey had to change from “go to Section 8…” to
“Stop here and mail this form”.

3. Question 7.b was removed. Subsequently, the item that was previously question 7.c was
changed to 7.b.

4. Three new response options were added to question 10.b, which include “Behavioral
modification or therapy, Trauma treatment, and Anger management.” These were high
frequency “Other – Specify” responses.

5. Several changes were made in the language used in the facility type descriptions for question
13 of Section 1. “Training School” was removed from the second facility type on the survey.
The term “juvenile offenders” was changed to “youth charged with or adjudicated for
delinquency or status offenses.” Lastly, the language used in the fourth facility type, Group
home/Halfway house, was changed from “a long-term facility that is generally non-secure
and intended for post-adjudication…” to “these facilities are generally non-secure and
typically intended for post-adjudication…”. The wording was rephrased so that the word
‘generally’ is understood as applying to both non-secure and post-adjudication because there
are some group homes that also house youth there for behavior reasons (i.e., non-offenders).

6. Question 14 was modified to ask if the facility has rooms “for the purpose of” keeping young
persons separate, rather than if the units are “designed” to do that. Additionally, “(If yes)”
was added to the beginning of question 14.b.

7. Question 20 was modified to ask about features intended to “secure” young persons within
specific areas in addition to confining. The first response option was modified to ask about
confining young persons within specific "areas or rooms" rather than simply "areas" to
clarify that a single room should be considered.

8. Items 25 and 26 a through c of Section 1 were removed, as new mandates require most states
to allow some level of large muscle activity on a regular basis.

9. Added a “please go to” note for the select all response in question 19.b of Section 2. This will
help prompt respondents to skip to the next question, as they’re supposed to leave the options
below blank when option 1 is selected.

10. added a “please go to” note for the select all response in question 10.b of Section 3. The
reason for this is the same as in question 19.b of Section 1.

11. added a “please go to” note for the select all response in question 10.b of Section 4. The
reason for this is the same as in question 19.b of Section 1 and 10.b of Section 2.

12. The term "secure" was changed to "obtain" in question 5.a of Section 5 because the original
wording is used in other areas throughout the survey with a different meaning, which was
referring to a secure facility.

13. Section 8, which was added to the 2020 JRFC survey cycle as a result of the Coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic, will be removed. For this reason, the final exit instruction in question
1.a of Section 7 needed to be updated.