Dear all,
I would like to have access to the information collected by the ACS but specifically for correctional facilities by State. Can somebody tell me if that information is available?
Are you interested in the correctional facilities themselves or the inmates? IPUMS has no data on the facilities themselves. The only way of identifying inmates in the ACS data is through the variable GQ. Inmates are included in the category “institutional group quarters.” However, this also includes other types of institutions such as nursing homes and mental institutions. As far as I know there is no way to identify prisoners directly in the public-use ACS files. It may be possible to identify these people in a restricted version of the data, but this would likely require a lengthy application process. Please email ipums@umn.edu if you’d like more information on this.
You might find what you need from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Matthew’s response applies to the ACS microdata available through IPUMS USA. The ACS summary files, available through IPUMS NHGIS, provide counts of population in group quarters by state broken down, separately, by sex and age, race, educational attainment, and several other characteristics. Most of these tables distinguish population in correctional facilities as a distinct category.
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Thanks @JonathanSchroeder, I discovered those tables after my earlier post. An example is Table S2601A which gives demographics of the population in correctional facilities. This can be broken down by state or other geographic regions, and is also available through IPUMS NHGIS.
Thank you very much to both of you!
Your answers were very useful!
Best regards,
Federico