Privacy Act of 1974; Implementation

In the Notice section of today's Federal Register, the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), a component within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ or Department), has published a notice of a new system of records, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Statistical Data, JUSTICE/OJP-017, for the statistical data collections that BJS conducts under 34 U.S.C. 10132. In this notice of proposed rulemaking, the OJP proposes to exempt this system of records from certain provisions of the Privacy Act in order to comply with the confidentiality provisions of 34 U.S.C. 10231 and 34 U.S.C. 30303 and the requirement of 34 U.S.C. 10134 that the data are to be used solely for statistical or research purposes. Additionally, data are to be used for authorized purposes under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA; 44 U.S.C. 3563) and the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 (DCRA; Pub. L. 113-242). Consistent with the data use requirements set forth in 34 U.S.C. 10134, no adverse determinations are made from these records as to any identifiable individual. For the reasons provided below, the Department proposes to amend its Privacy Act regulations by establishing an exemption for records in this system from certain provisions of the Privacy Act. Public comment is invited.