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pdfAttachment E: Interview guide
Local Jail Reporting Program Pilot Study
Interview Guide
Jail name and location:
Sheriff / Jail Administrator / Department Head:
Interviewer (1):
Interviewer (2):
Interviewee name and title (1):
Interviewee name and title (2):
Interviewee name and title (3):
Date:
Introduction and purpose of the interview
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), a federal statistical agency housed in the U.S. Department
of Justice (DOJ), is seeking your agency’s participation in a pilot study to help inform the
planning for a new BJS program, the Local Jail Reporting Program (LJRP). The goal of LJRP is to
collect individual‐level administrative data from local jails to support research and public policy
decisions.
BJS awarded funds to the University of Michigan (UM) to operate as BJS’s agent for the LJRP
pilot data collection. As a first step, we are conducting interviews with 30 of the largest jails to
understand if and how they can provide individual‐level data to BJS for statistical and research
purposes. The findings of the interviews will be used to develop the LJRP collection and will not
be released to the public.
We have a series of questions about the Jail Management System (JMS) your agency uses and
about your agency’s capacity to provide data from that JMS to BJS. This interview will take
approximately 60 minutes to complete. Your agency’s participation in this interview is
completely voluntary. You may decline to answer specific questions, limit your responses, or
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may stop the interview at any time. Your agency will not be penalized in any way if you choose
to not participate in the interview or the data collection stage of the pilot study.
We appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today! Your input will be critical to help BJS
improve its jail data collection.
General questions about the Jail Management System (JMS)
1. Vendor:
2. Product Name:
3. How many years has your agency been using this JMS?
4. How many years of individual‐level data are stored in your JMS?
5. Are you planning to switch to a different JMS in the next year or two? If yes, what is the
name of the new system (if known)?
6. Does your JMS import data from other systems, e.g., Case Management System from the
Court, Offender Management Systems from the DOC?
Yes☐ No☐
a. If yes, from what other system(s)?
b. If yes, what type of data are imported?
i. Demographic characteristics
Yes☐ No☐
ii. Arrest information
Yes☐ No☐
iii. Case/charge information
Yes☐ No☐
iv. Bail/bond information
Yes☐ No☐
v. Sentences
Yes☐ No☐
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Data sharing with BJS
[Interviewer talking points: BJS is required by law to use the data it collects only for statistical or
research purposes and protect respondent privacy and confidentiality. To fulfill these statutory
obligations, BJS and its data collection agents employ robust physical, technical, and
administrative controls and data security procedures to protect the data collected under BJS’s
authority.
BJS is governed by many federal laws, regulations, and policies to uphold these fundamental
requirements and responsibilities, which are summarized in the BJS Data Protection Guidelines,
available on the BJS website at ‐
https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/bjs_data_protection_guideli
nes.pdf .]
We would like to learn more about how your JMS tracks the movement of inmates, and their
charges and sentences, but before we start on that, I have some questions about your data
sharing process…
7. If BJS were to request individual‐level data from your jail for statistical purposes, can your
agency provide the following types of data to BJS?
a. Data that contains no personal identifiers (e.g., race, charges, data of admissions)?
Yes☐ No☐
b. Data that contains personal or unique identifiers (e.g., full name, exact DOB, SSN, FBI #)?
Yes☐ No☐
c. Are there any specific data elements or categories of data, such as inmate
characteristics, arrest and booking, charges, bail/bond, or sentences, that your agency
cannot share with BJS, either due to legal, data quality, or other reasons?
8. What administrative processes does your jail have in place for sharing data with a federal
agency like BJS? Who has to approve data sharing?
9. Do you have any preferred process or requirements for BJS to follow to request the data?
10. In your experience, about how long does it typically take to review and make
determinations about data provision requests?
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11. Are there any major challenges you can anticipate to providing individual‐level data to BJS?
[Interviewer: Probe with “Are there any other challenges?”]
12. What could BJS do to help make it easier to provide any or all of the requested data?
13. When we are ready to request pilot data for the LJRP, to whom or to what entity should we
address the request?
a. Name:
b. Title:
c. Phone:
d. Email:
Inmate movements and status changes
14. Are the following types of jail entry captured as new admissions in your JMS? [Interviewer:
Record explanations for Not Applicable items.]
a. Transfers from another facility within your jail jurisdiction
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
b. Repeat offenders booked on new charges
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
c. Returns from court appearance
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
d. Returns from bail/bond releases
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
e. Returns from work release
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
f. Returns from medical appointments or treatment facilities
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
g. Returns from furloughs
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
15. What admission reasons are recorded in your JMS?
16. Can you distinguish admissions booked on new charges from transfers from other facilities
within your jail jurisdiction and returns from temporary release? If so, how (e.g., through
booking ID, inmate ID, or admission reason)?
17. Can you create individual‐level data extracts containing all admissions within a specified
date range?
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18. An inmate’s status often changes while in jail, e.g., pretrial to sentenced, pretrial to bond
release, and temporary release to pretrial (bond violation).
a. What types of status are captured in your JMS?
b. How are status changes recorded in the JMS? Are existing data overwritten or new
records created when recording status changes?
c. Are the date and time of status changes recorded in the JMS? Yes☐ No☐
19. Are the following types of exits from jail captured as releases in your JMS? [Interviewer:
Record explanations for Not Applicable items.]
a. Transfers to another facility within your jail jurisdiction
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
b. Temporary releases for a court appearance
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
c. Pre‐trial releases (e.g., posted bail/bond)
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
d. Work releases
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
e. Temporary releases for medical appointments/treatment
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
f. Furloughs
Yes☐ No☐ NA☐
20. What release reasons are recorded in your JMS?
21. Can your JMS create individual‐level data extracts containing all releases within a specified
date range?
Charges and Sentences
22. How are charge data entered into your JMS? Are they entered manually or imported from
another agency through data linkage? What about sentence data?
23. If charges are modified, such as amended or reduced, how is that recorded in your JMS?
24. Are charges categorized by type, such as violent, property, drug, and public disorder in your
JMS? If so, what are the categories?
25. Are charges categorized by level of severity, such as felony and misdemeanor? If so, what
are the categories?
26. Do you have charge data on inmates held for state DOC or federal authorities such as U.S.
Marshals and ICE?
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27. Can you create individual‐level data extracts containing all charges associated with each
admission within a specified date range?
28. How are sentence data entered into your JMS? Are they entered manually or imported from
another agency through data linkage?
29. Do you have sentence data on inmates held for state DOC or federal authorities such as U.S.
Marshals and ICE?
30. Can you create individual‐level data extracts containing lengths of sentences for each
inmate serving time in your jail within a specified date range?
Conclusion
That is all the questions we have today. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge about
your JMS and data sharing process with us.
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| File Type | application/pdf |
| File Title | Microsoft Word - attachment_e_interview_guide.docx |
| Author | zengz |
| File Modified | 2022-10-18 |
| File Created | 2022-10-18 |