Planning & Research Unit

The majority of inmates fall within the age range of 20 - 39 years old with an average age of approximately 32 for female offenders held awaiting trial & 35 for male offenders held awaiting trial. The average age of a sentenced female offender is 37 & 39 for a sentenced male offender. For more information please refer to pages 12-13 of our annual Population Report FY20.

On average, the majority of sentenced offenders are white (40%), followed by black and Hispanic (29.8% and 25.8%, respectively). Please note: Hispanic is recorded as a race rather than an ethnicity. Therefore, we are unable to determine whether offenders identifying themselves as Hispanic are white or black. Additionally, those who identify themselves as white or black may also be Hispanic. For more information please refer to page 12 of our annual Population Report FY20.

Nearly 56% of males and about 64% of female offenders are sentenced on violent offenses. For more information please refer to page 16 of our annual Population Report FY20.

Of the sentenced offenders released in 2015, 47% were returned to sentenced status within 36 months of release. For more information please refer to our CY16 Recidivism Report.

From FY11 to FY20, the RI Department of Corrections saw a decrease of -30.2% in the number of commitments. The total number of commitments for FY20 was 10,819. For more information please refer to our annual Admissions & Releases Report CY19 and our annual Population Report FY20.

Over the course of FY20, the RI Department of Corrections was averaging approximately 2,544 offenders (approximately 75% sentenced and 25% awaiting trial). For more information please refer to our Average Monthly Population FY19-FY20 (Coming Soon).

On average an offender is sentenced to just under 24 months, while the majority of those committed to the RI Department of Corrections receive a sentence of 6 months or less. For more information please refer to page 17 of our annual Population Report FY20.

Over the course of FY20, there are just about 20,895 offenders on Probation or Parole under the RI Department of Corrections jurisdiction. For more information please refer to page 23 of our annual Population Report FY20.

Generally, it takes about one month for Non-Medical research to be reviewed and approved or denied. Behavioral and Medical research can take as long as two months to be processed as it must be reviewed by the prison's Medical Research Advisory Group, which meets bi-monthly.

RIDOC adheres to Federal Regulations (45CFR46) for the protection of human research subjects. Therefore, if you are gathering information directly from inmates or employees of the RIDOC (e.g., surveys/interviews) or you are planning to research an intervention with inmates or employees (e.g., a group treatment), you need IRB approval. The only research exempt from IRB review is research that analyzes secondary data (i.e., data that will be extracted from a data source, requiring no direct contact with inmates of staff).

Yes, students are required to follow the same policy. In addition, students are required to provide the name and contact information of the academic instructor/professor who is supervising the student. RIDOC will make the academic supervisor aware of any concerns related to the student's research.