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Re: Disposal of Prison Inmate Files



 My apologies for resending.  I forgot to include my signature to message below.

Several years ago, the NY State Archives underwent a major project to appraise, schedule, and acquire prison inmate files.  Briefly, we acquired all inmate files prior to 1957 when computer tracking was implemented.  We also acquired tapes for that computer system to provide aggregate data and then sampled the paper files following 1957 randomly at 2%.  We also oversampled in certain categories all files for inmates from racial/ethnic groups other than white, black, and hispanic to ensure these smaller groups would not be missed.  Since women inmates make up only about 2% of the prison population, we also acquired all files for them.  We also oversampled the files for inmates in the following categories:

- Inmates with life sentences
- Inmates sentenced to death
- Inmates with commuted sentences
- Inmates that died in custody
- Inmates with variable sentences--"one day to life"
- Inmates that were notorious criminals.

The sampling was based on extensive research and consultation with experts in the field.  The implementation of the sampling plan took near 5 years to accomplish due to major problems in coordinating between different departments in the Department of Correctional Services.  I am not sure that the effort or time was worth it.  

I wrote up the project as a case study for the Society of American Archivists intended for use in graduate archival administration studies.  It was published and is available for purchase from SAA.  I assume you can find out how from the SAA web-site.

Thomas D. Norris
Manager of Records Advisory Services
New York State Archives
518-473-8499
tnorris@mail.nysed.gov

>>> Matthew.Hockey@DIA.GOVT.NZ 07/13/00 07:49PM >>>
I am an appraisal archivist at the National Archives of New Zealand, and I
am currently developing a disposal schedule for prison inmate files.  I
would be very interested to know how other archives are dealing with these
files - in particular, whether sampling is used to select files for
retention, and if so what kind of sampling plan is followed.

If there are any current schedules covering prison inmate files, I would be
interested to see these, as well as any appraisal reports which would
explain the reasons for the sampling method used.

Please e-mail me at Matthew.Hockey@dia.govt.nz 
<mailto:Matthew.Hockey@dia.govt.nz>.  Alternatively, you can write to me at
National Archives, PO Box 12 050, Wellington, New Zealand.

Thanks!

Matthew Hockey
National Archives of New Zealand
PO Box 12 050
Wellington
Ph 64 4 499 5595
Fax 64 4 495 6210
Web: http://www.archives.govt.nz 

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