Do Inmate Survey Data Reflect Prison Conditions? Using Surveys to Assess Prison Conditions of Confinement*

Survey data of opinions are often collected to answer questions about individuals and processes affecting individuals. This is an appropriate use of survey data as the unit of analysis matches the unit of measurement. Sometimes, though, survey data (individual-level data) are used to create group-level measures. For example, the percentage of inmates at one prison who responded that safety is a problem is compared to the respective percentage of inmates at another prison. This latter use has definitely shown up in evaluations of prison privatization. In the latter case, the unit of analysis is no longer the individual, it is the group, the respective prisons. While this shift in the unit of analysis may be justified, the theoretical and methodological properties of group-level measures created from individual-level data are rarely examined, and the shift in the unit of analysis is not always justified. This report examines whether survey data collected from inmates can be used to create group-level measures of prison conditions. Inmates often carry a stigma that they are never to be trusted. A subset of a national survey of inmates was used to examine how inmates incarcerated in prisons operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons answered questions about safety, noise, and job assignments at their prisons. In particular, this report demonstrates that inmate answers to the questions vary in a systematic fashion that lends credence to using survey data from inmates to obtain information about the prisons in which they are incarcerated. However, proper techniques for using survey data have not been practiced in existing evaluation studies comparing public and private prisons.