National Jail Census, 1993

This data collection is part of a series of data collection
efforts aimed at studying the nation's locally administered jails. The
1993 census included all locally administered confinement facilities
(3,287) that held inmates beyond arraignment and were staffed by
municipal or county employees. The census also included 17 jails that
were privately operated under contract for local governments and seven
facilities maintained by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and functioning
as jails. For purposes of this data collection, a local jail was
defined as a confinement facility intended for holding adults, and in
some cases juveniles pending adjudication or having sentences of a year
or less. Jails were further defined as being administered by a local
law enforcement agency. Variables include information on jail
population by legal status, age, and sex of prisoners, maximum
sentence, admissions and releases, available services and programs,
structure and capacity, facility age and use of space, expenditure,
employment, staff information, and health issues, which include
statistics on drugs, AIDS, and tuberculosis.