Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ): Design and Testing

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is seeking applications for funding to conduct research on the instrument and sampling design and to create and pilot test an instrument and sampling method for the next iteration of the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ). BJS anticipates making one award for a 24-month period between October 2015 and October 2017. A separate solicitation for the national implementation of the SILJ will be announced after this project is completed. BJS seeks a single instrument and data collection operation that can be used to gather data from a probability sample of male and female jail inmates. Depending on survey costs and inmate interview time, the instrument will collect data compatible with the same 10 domains covered in past versions of the jail inmate survey. BJS also may expand the number of domains to include current issues to be determined by, but not limited to, consulting with the awardee and jail experts; working with focus groups and expert panels; and assessing stakeholder feedback.