Bureau of Justice Statistics Grant: Annual Surveys of Probation and Parole 2020-2024

The ASPP are two separate data collections, independently referred to as the Annual Probation Survey and Annual Parole Survey. Since 1980, the ASPP have collected aggregate data on the number of persons supervised on probation or parole (i.e., post-custody community supervision), together referred to as the community supervision population. The ASPP obtain aggregated data from administrative records maintained by state probation and/or parole agencies; local agencies (municipal, county, or court); and the federal system. The ASPP are core BJS data collections and are the only national data collections that describe the size, change, movements, outcomes, and characteristics of the community supervision populations at the national, federal, and state levels. Together with data from the National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) Program, which collects counts of persons incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and data from the Annual Survey of Jails, which collects counts of persons held in local jails, ASPP data are used to estimate the total number of persons supervised by the adult correctional systems in the United States. Collectively, these data collections are also critical for tracking the level and change in the correctional populations over time and enhancing the understanding of the flow of offenders through and eventually out of the criminal justice system.
Because of the needs for and uses of the ASPP data, it is imperative that these data are reliable, of high quality, and are representative of the entire targeted population. Therefore, through this award, BJS intends to enhance these aspects of the ASPP.

The ASPP collection is BJS’s most comprehensive source of information about persons under community supervision, which accounts for the largest segment of the adult correctional population in the United States. At yearend 2013, more than 4.75 million adults were under community supervision in the United States, including 3.9 million probationers and more than 850,000 parolees. About 7 in 10 persons under correctional supervision in the United States lived in the community in 2013, compared to 3 in 10 who were incarcerated in prison or jail. The ASPP collection fills a valuable role by measuring the number of persons under community supervision each year, the change in this number and factors associated with the change (such as movements onto and off community supervision), the characteristics of this population, and outcomes of supervision. These surveys collect information from both large and small agencies, which are located at various levels and branches of government and have highly diverse data record systems and resources.

Statutory Authority: Under Section 302 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, BJS is authorized to “make grants to, or enter into cooperative agreements or contracts with public agencies, institutions of higher education, private organizations, or private individuals” for purposes of collecting and analyzing criminal justice statistics. BJS is authorized to issue this solicitation under 34 U.S.C. § 10132.