Bureau of Justice Statistics

The BJS conducts the Annual Survey of Jails of a sample of about 950 American jails, and a periodic Census of Jails covering all American jails. Data from these programs was used to show that local jails in the United States had a sharp decline in inmates from February to May 2020 of perhaps 185,000 inmates, more than 20% of the inmate population, in response to the danger of COVID-19 on a crowded incarcerated population. Many inmates were given an "expedited release". == See also ==

In 2005, the Bush administration replaced BJS Director Lawrence Greenfeld after he refused to remove certain racial statistics from a report, despite having published similar statistics in 2001. The following two references provide analysis and initial reporting, respectively. • Josephf M. Bessette • Eric Lichtblau More recent directors have included Jeffrey H. Anderson, Jeffrey Sedgwick, Michael Sinclair, John Jay Professor James P. Lynch, and former Deputy Director William Sabol. Until 2012, the position of the BJS Director required a Senate approval, but since 2012 the post only requires the President's appointment. Alex Piquero is the current BJS Director. ==References==