Inmate Litigation Appendix

Margo Schlanger, Inmate Litigation, 116 HARV. L. REV. 1555 (2003)

Technical Appendix
(Fall 2004)

A. THE DATABASES

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all databases provided are in SPSS data files. One very large file is in portable (.por) form, zipped; the other, smaller files are in ordinary SPSS data format (.sav). Code runs in SPSS unless otherwise noted, but is provided in .txt format, for easier viewing. To run the code, it will need to be saved and renamed as SPSS syntax, file extension .sps.

1. Dataset: inmate petitions (habeas and civil rights) 1970-2001 pending

a. Creating the database: SPSS code

i. Year-by-year formatting of the original AO data, and stripping out just inmate cases

ii. Merging the year-by-year data

iii. Data transformation and sorting

iv. Additional federal defendants

v. Production code (calls each part of the above code in turn)

For the "production" syntax to work, you'll need to download each component of the code above. Then rename each one with the file extension .sps, and put all of them in a directory named:

D:\\TechnicalAppendix\Creating the 1970-2001 dataset\

They are also here, zipped for your convenience

Then download the relevant raw datafiles from the ICPSR website, http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/, study nos. 8429 and 3415. You'll need each of the non-pending Civil Termination data parts of study no. 8429 and each of the Civil Termination parts of study no. 3415. You may be interested in the codebooks and the SPSS data definition statements, but you do not need them to run this code. The downloads must be to a file called:

D:\\TechnicalAppendix\

This code can easily be adapted to create a database of other, non-inmate case categories (by changing the nature of suit filter used).

Alternatively, if you prefer just to start with the database that emerges from the code above, rather than replicating it yourself, those results are immediately below:

b.		The resulting dataset: InmateCases1970_2001.por (zipped)
c.		Sources: i.    Federal Judicial Center, Federal Court Cases: Integrated Data Base, 1970-2000 (pts. 38-55, 64-65, 73-74, 86-88, 98, 103-04, 115-17 (civil terminations 1970-2000) (ICPSR Study No. 8429, last updated Apr. 25, 2002). ii.    Federal Judicial Center, Federal Court Cases: Integrated Data Base, 2001 (pts. 2 (civil terminations), 3 (civil pending)) (ICPSR Study No. 3415, last updated June 19, 2002).

2. Individual years' AO data.

a.		1993 inmate civil rights docket audit Data only: 1993auditpost.sav
b.		1995 terminations (all - inmate and other) Because it is a condition of use of data from the ICPSR that it not simply be redistributed, you will need the raw data file from the ICPSR website, study no. 8429, part 98, to look at this database. See http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ Begin by downloading part 98 and putting it in a directory D:\\TechnicalAppendix\ Then you can download and run the necessary code (1995all.txt) to open the dataset up and adapt it in order to perform the various analyses done below. Note: This code is nearly identical to the code for 2000 terminations, immediately below; it has more than is necessary for the analysis actually set out in this technical appendix. (Also, you'll need to rename it with the file extension .sps)
c.		2000 terminations (all - inmate and other) Because it is a condition of use of data from the ICPSR that it not simply be redistributed, you will need the raw data file from the ICPSR website, study no. 8429, part 117, to look at this database. See http://www.icpsr.umich.edu Begin by downloading part 117 and putting it in a directory D:\\TechnicalAppendix\ Then you can run the necessary code (2000all.txt) to open the dataset up and adapt it in order to perform the various analyses done below. Note: This code is nearly identical to the code for 1995 terminations, immediately above. (Also, you'll need to rename it with the file extension .sps)

3. Prisons and jail population, state-by-state and year-by-year, with inmate civil rights filings:

a.		Creating the database (if you want to replicate or see my work) i.    prison and jail populations by year and state (prison_filing_rates.sav) ii.    generating inmate civil rights filings by year, state, and federal or non-federal defendants, and merging those results with the file of prison and jail populations (population_and_filings.txt) Note: you can run this syntax only if you have downloaded or generated the InmateCases1970_2001 file; otherwise, just use the resulting data, immediately following.
b.		Data: population_and_filings.sav
c.		Sources and notes for prison and jail populations

4. Prison and jail population and court orders

Download data and code into a file called D:\\TechnicalAppendix\CorrectionalCensuses
Note: most of the code for this section is simply taken from the "data definition files" from the relevant ICPSR studies; see the end of each file for my own work.

a. National Jail Censuses, 1999, 1993, 1988, 1983
First download all the data files, and then the code to first open each one, then to merge them:
Code: 1999, 1993, 1988, 1983, merge
Each of these is called, in turn, by this Jail Production Code
The raw data is available from the ICPSR (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/

i.		1999: ICPSR Study No. 3318
ii.		1993: ICPSR Study No. 6648
iii.		1988: ICPSR Study No. 9256
iv.		1983: ICPSR Study No. 8203

b.Censuses of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities, 1995, 1990, 1984
First download all the data files, and then the code to first open each one, then to merge them:
Code: 1995, 1990, 1984, merge
Each of these is called, in turn, by this Prison Production Code

[Note: 2000 data provided by Bureau of Justice Statistics and currently not publically available.]
i.		1995: ICPSR Study No. 6953
ii.		1990: ICPSR Study No. 9908
iii.		1984: ICPSR Study No. 8444

B.TABLES AND FIGURES FROM THE ARTICLE

1. Generating the tables (SPSS)

SPSS syntax: TablesSyntax.txt

2. Tables and figures, in excel format (including associated data)

Tables and Figures.xls (NOTE: This is readable if you simply open it, but works better if downloaded)

Table I.A, figures I.A, I.B, (inmate filings, incarcerated population, resulting rates)
Table II.A and II.A.1 (inmate civil rights outcomes by filing years)
Table II.B (cases terminated 1995 outcomes by case category)
Table II.C, figure II.A (damages and punitives in inmate civil rights cases terminated 1993)
Table II.D (cases terminated 2000, pro se codes by case category)
Figures IV.A - IV.E (outcomes for cases filed since 1987, with adjustments for pendings)
Table App. A (errors in AO award coding, inmate civil rights cases terminated 1993)

C. OTHER ITEMS FROM THE ARTICLE

SPSS syntax:Footnotes syntax.txt
SPSS output:Footnotes output.spo
MS Word document with syntax and resulting output: Footnotes log.doc
RTF document with syntax and resulting output: Footnotes log.rtf
NOTE: These documents can be viewed by simply opening them, but work better if downloaded

Items included: