[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 69 (Thursday, April 9, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19957-19958]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-07475]
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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Office of Justice Programs
[OMB Number 1121-NEW]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed eCollection
eComments Requested; Reinstatement, With Change, of Previously Approved
Collection: National Inmate Survey in Jails (NIS-4J)
AGENCY: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs,
Department of Justice.
ACTION: 60-Day notice.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, will be submitting the following
information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES: Comments are encouraged and will be accepted for 60 days until
June 8, 2020.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have additional comments
especially on the estimated public burden or associated response time,
suggestions, or need a copy of the proposed information collection
instrument with instructions or additional information, please contact
Amy Lauger, Supervisory Statistician, Institutional Research and
Special Projects Unit, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 810 Seventh Street
NW, Washington, DC 20531 (email: [email protected]; telephone:
202-307-0711).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Written comments and suggestions from the
public and affected agencies concerning the proposed collection of
information are encouraged. Your comments should address one or more of
the following four points:
--Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary
for the proper performance of the functions of the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, including whether the information will have practical
utility;
--Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
--Evaluate whether, and if so how, the quality, utility, and clarity of
the information to be collected can be enhanced; and
--Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are
to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic
submission of responses.
Overview of This Information Collection
1. Type of Information Collection: Reinstatement, with change, of a
previously approved collection. A new OMB number is needed, as this
collection was previously under 1121-0311 with the collection of prison
data. They are now two separate collections.
2. The Title of the Form/Collection: National Inmate Survey in
Jails (NIS-4J).
3. The agency form number, if any, and the applicable component of
the Department sponsoring the collection: There is no agency form
number at this time. The applicable component within the Department of
Justice is the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in the Office of Justice
Programs.
4. Affected public who will be asked or required to respond, as
well as a brief abstract: Respondents will primarily be State, Local,
or Tribal Government entities. The work under this clearance will be
used to produce estimates for the incidence and prevalence of sexual
victimization within correctional facilities as required under the
Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (Pub. L. 108-79). The Bureau of
Justice Statistics uses this information in published reports and for
the U.S. Congress, Executive Office of the President, practitioners,
researchers, students, the media, and others interested in criminal
justice statistics.
In 2003, the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA or the Act) was
signed into law. The Act requires BJS to ``carry out, for each calendar
year, a comprehensive
[[Page 19958]]
statistical review and analysis of the incidence and effects of prison
rape.'' The Act further instructs BJS to collect survey data: ``. . .
the Bureau shall . . . use surveys and other statistical studies of
current and former inmates . . .''
To implement the Act, BJS developed the National Prison Rape
Statistics Program (NPRS), which includes four separate data collection
efforts: The Survey on Sexual Violence (SSV), the National Inmate
Survey (NIS), the National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC), and the
National Former Prisoner Survey (NFPS). The NIS collects information on
sexual victimization self-reported by inmates held in adult
correctional facilities, both prisons and jails. The NIS has been
conducted three times, in 2007 (NIS-1), in 2008-09 (NIS-2), and in
2011-12 (NIS-3). Each iteration of NIS was conducted in at least one
facility in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In each
iteration of the survey, inmates completed the survey using an audio
computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI), whereby they heard questions
and instructions via headphones and responded to the survey items via a
touch-screen interface.
The collection requested in this notice is the fourth iteration of
the National Inmate Survey. For NIS-4, administration of the survey in
prisons will take place separately from survey administration in jails.
This collection request is specific to conducting the survey in adult
jail facilities.
The survey instrument for the NIS-4 in Jails is slightly modified
from the previous iterations. The main difference is the addition of a
new set of incident-specific questions administered to respondents who
affirmatively indicate they were sexually victimized at some point in
the previous 12 months while housed in their current jail facility.
These incident-specific questions will provide information to the
public on the nature of sexual victimization in jails, such as where
incidents occurred within the facility, the relationship between the
victim and the alleged perpetrator(s), and whether the victim suffered
any injuries as a result of the incident, among other incident
characteristics.
5. An estimate of the total number of respondents and the amount of
time estimated for an average respondent to respond: Prior to data
collection commencing in 2021, BJS will coordinate the logistics of
NIS-4 survey administration with staff at state, local, and tribal
correction facilities. Because the administration of this survey in
prisons is not included in this request, the overall number of burden
hours is lower than in the last request approved in 2010. It is
estimated that 225 facility respondents will devote 260 minutes of time
to this coordination effort. During data collection in 2021, jail staff
will escort an estimated 44,335 jail inmates to/from the interviews,
which consists of a short consent administration and an approximately
35 minute survey.
6. An estimate of the total public burden (in hours) associated
with the collection: This collection was previously approved for
implementation in both adult prisons and jails. The current request
will only be implemented in adult jails, thereby reducing the total
number of facility staff and respondents required to participate. The
total estimated NIS-4 Jails public burden, inclusive of facility staff
and respondent burden estimates, is 43,982 hours. This comprises 12,061
hours of facility staff burden and 31,921 hours of respondent
interviewing burden. This burden estimate assumes 100% participation
from both facilities and inmates, but historically both facility and
inmate participation have not reached 100%. We expect an inmate
response rate of approximately 62%.
If additional information is required contact: Melody Braswell,
Department Clearance Officer, United States Department of Justice,
Justice Management Division, Policy and Planning Staff, Two
Constitution Square, 145 N Street NE, 3E.405A, Washington, DC 20530.
Dated: April 6, 2020.
Melody Braswell,
Department Clearance Officer for PRA, U.S. Department of Justice.
[FR Doc. 2020-07475 Filed 4-8-20; 8:45 am]
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