A newer version of this project is available. See below for other available versions.

California Jail Profile Survey 1995-2018

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Jacob Kaplan, University of Pennsylvania

Version:  View help for Version V3

Name File Type Size Last Modified
california_jail_profile_survey_instructions.pdf application/pdf 474.3 KB 07/07/2018 10:06:AM
california_jail_survey_1995_2018_csv.zip application/zip 1.9 MB 02/24/2019 04:56:AM
california_jail_survey_1995_2018_dta.zip application/zip 2.2 MB 02/24/2019 04:57:AM
california_jail_survey_1995_2018_rda.zip application/zip 1.8 MB 02/24/2019 04:56:AM

Project Citation: 

Kaplan, Jacob. California Jail Profile Survey 1995-2018. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-02-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/E104560V3

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary
Version 3 release notes:
  • Updates data through September 2018 (third quarter of 2018 in the quarterly data).
  • Fixes bug where some jurisdiction names were replaced with NA.
Version 2 release notes:
  • Updates data until June 2018.

This data is the Jail Profile Survey from California. These data include highly detailed information about the inmates in jails in the state at the jail-month level and the county-month and county-quarter level of analysis.

The data was scraped from the California Board of State and Community Corrections' website here https://app.bscc.ca.gov/joq//jps/queryselection.asp

There are three data sets available: facility/jail-level data monthly, county-level data monthly, and county-level data quarterly. Each of these data sets offers different variables. All the data sets have the variables indicating the years, month (or quarter), and jurisdiction (in most cases the county sheriff). I added variables with the FIPS county and state codes and county names from the US census.

The PDF available for download is the instruction manual from the California Board of State and Community Corrections to employees who submit the jail survey data. This manual indicates how variables are created and can help with understanding the data. I recommend reading it before using this data.

I did not make any changes to the except for the following: Changed column names to make it more informative and shorten names to fit the 32 character limit for Stata. Some cells had the values D and U to represent Does Not Apply and Unavailable. In both of these cases I changed those cells to NA. I did this to allow the column to be numeric for analysis.

Variables in Facility/Jail-Level Data Monthly
  • Name of facility/jail
  • Population capacity for the facility (if any)
  • Average daily population for unsentenced males
  • Average daily population for unsentenced females
  • Average daily population for sentenced males
  • Average daily population for sentenced females
  • Average daily population total
Variables in County-Level Data Monthly
  • Average daily population for unsentenced males
  • Average daily population for unsentenced females
  • Average daily population for sentenced males
  • Average daily population for sentenced females
  • Average daily population total
  • Average number of felony inmates unsentenced
  • Average number of felony inmates sentenced
  • Average number of felony inmates total
  • Average number of misdemeanor inmates unsentenced
  • Average number of misdemeanor inmates sentenced
  • Average number of misdemeanor inmates total
  • Day of month where county had most number of inmates
  • The number of inmates on that day
  • Average daily population of maximum security inmates
  • Average daily population of medium security inmates
  • Average daily population of minimum security inmates
  • Number of mental health cases opened last day of month
  • Number of new mental health cases open during month
  • Inmates receiving psych medication on last day of month
  • Inmates assigned to mental health beds on last day of month
  • Inmates seen at sick call during month
  • Doctor occurrences during month
  • Off-site medical appointments during month
  • Dental encounters during month
  • Inmates assigned to medical beds on last day of month
  • Average number of inmates not assigned to housing
  • Average number of inmates in contract beds in other jurisdictions
  • Average number of federal inmates in facilities (by contract)
  • Average number of state inmates in facilities (by contract)
  • Average number of other county inmates in facilities (by contract)
  • Average number of inmates sent or awaiting contract to prison
  • Average number of inmates in hospitals outside jail
  • Total number of inmates booked during month
  • Total number of pretrial released due to lack of housing
  • Total number of sentenced inmates released due to lack of housing
  • Total number of juveniles in custody
Variables in  County-Level Data Quarterly
  • Number of inmates classified as "3rd Strike"
  • Number of inmates classified as "2nd Strike"
  • Number of unserved felony warrants in county
  • Number of unserved misdemeanor warrants in county
  • Percent of inmates believed to be illegal aliens
  • Number of inmates assaults on staff
  • Money spent on medication in previous quarter
  • Money spent on psych medication during previous quarter
  • Average length of stay (in days) for all released inmates
  • Average length of stay (in days) for pretrial releases
  • Average length of stay (in days) for sentenced inmate releases
The code used to scrape and clean this data is available here: https://github.com/jacobkap/california_jails

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms california; prop 47; jail inmates; juvenile inmates; inmate populations; male inmates; female inmates; mentally ill inmates; california jail; jail violence
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage California
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 10/1995 – 9/2018 (October 1995 - September 2018)
Universe:  View help for Universe Persons incarcerated in California jails.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data; survey data

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source California Board of State and Community Corrections
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Jail facility or county
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit Jail facility

Related Publications

Download this project

Published Versions

V7 [2021-01-16]

V6 [2020-06-29]

V5 [2019-12-11]

V4 [2019-04-26]

V3 [2019-02-24]

V2 [2018-11-11]

V1 [2018-07-07]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

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This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.