Conduct State DOC-level Survey to Determine States' Ability to Provide Individual-level Probation Records to the National Corrections Reporting Program

Appendix B. Survey instrument

State/Agency: _____________ Interviewee: _______________________ Date: ___________

Introductory statement: The purpose of this survey is to determine the feasibility of collecting probation records in future National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) data requests. Probation records are not being requested this year and would only be requested following approval by the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

1. Does your agency have electronic records with information on each offender’s entry to and exit from probation, defined here as a sentence of community supervision that does not follow a prison term?

____ Yes. Go to 2

____ No. Go to 1a

1a. What agency(ies) in your state maintain these records?

______________________________________________________________

1b. Do you have a contact person at this agency that you could refer me to?

______________________________________________________________

END THE SURVEY.

2. Check the box in the table that best describes the offenders included in your system with the electronic records of probation entries and exits:

Types of offenders	Geographic area covered in your system
	State-wide	Not state-wide (e.g., only certain counties)
All offenders sentenced to probation regardless of charge type
Just offenders sentenced to probation on felony charges
Just offenders sentenced to probation on misdemeanor charges

3. Can your system generate a list of offenders who are on probation at the end of the calendar year?

____ Yes.

____ No.

4. Does your system contain the following data elements?

A unique identifier for each offender:

___ Yes; ___ Yes, but it is rarely filled in; ___No

A unique offender identifier that links to the offender’s prison and parole records (if any):

___ Yes; ___ Yes, but it is rarely filled in; ___No

The date the offender entered/started probation:

___ Yes; ___ Yes, but it is rarely filled in; ___No

The date the offender exited/completed probation:

___ Yes; ___ Yes, but it is rarely filled in; ___No

The date the offender entered prison, if probation was revoked:

___ Yes; ___ Yes, but it is rarely filled in; ___No

The type of probation completion (revocation, completion, AWOL, etc.):

___ Yes; ___ Yes, but it is rarely filled in; ___No

The offense for which the offender was sentenced to probation:

___ Yes; ___ Yes, but it is rarely filled in; ___No

Any information on the probation term sentence length:

___ Yes; ___ Yes, but it is rarely filled in; ___No

5. What obstacles are there to your including files of probation entries and exits with your NCRP submission?

_____ I don’t see any; we should be able to include these files in future NCRP submissions

_____ Providing these files will be difficult, given our current staffing levels and workloads

_____ Our records system doesn’t enable us to create these types of files

_____ Our files are of such poor quality that we would not want to provide them

_____ Other _____________________________________________________________

Thank them for their time.