The ASJ provides an annual source of data on local jails and jail inmates. Data on the size of the jail population and selected inmate characteristics are obtained every five to six years from the Census of Jails (also profiled in this catalog). In each of the years between the full censuses, a sample survey of jails, the ASJ, is conducted to estimate baseline characteristics of the nation’s jails and inmates housed in these jails. Data are supplied on inmate characteristics, admissions and releases, growth in the number of jail facilities, changes in their capacities and level of occupancy, growth in the population supervised in the community, changes in methods of community supervision, and crowding issues in local jails.