You need DD Form 2713, and this page gives you the blank plus the steps for handling it. Start with what the form does: Prisoner Observation Report. Its official title is DD Form 2713, Prisoner Observation Report, March 2013.
Your second step is the edition, not stated, listed as not stated. Your third is scope. Because the number carries a DD prefix, you use the same blank as every other military department and defense agency; no service-specific version exists for you to hunt down.
Then settle the schedule. You are working under not stated, with not stated responsible for the document, and your organization layers its own deadlines on that. Ask before you assume a date.
Last in this stage, choose your method: complete it on screen, or print the blank form and fill it out in pen. The sections below take each route step by step.
Begin at the top and move down. Enter your identifying data first, then the body of the form, then the signature block. The sequence is printed in that order because entries below frequently follow from entries above.
Before your first entry, look at the corner of the page and compare the printed date with not stated. If they do not match, stop and download again. Old copies circulate in shared drives for years, and a DD form is revised centrally for every service at once, so a superseded blank may not carry the fields your reviewer expects.
Take the fields in order and answer all of them. Mark inapplicable items N/A instead of leaving white space. When you reach a date, copy the format shown on the form, since a reviewer reading a different convention may misread your entry entirely.
When you reach a Privacy Act Statement, read it before you continue. It tells you the legal authority for collecting your information, what the Department does with it, who else may see it, and whether you have to answer at all. That last point is worth knowing before you supply personal identifiers, not after.
Sign only after every other entry is complete. Use ink on a printed copy, or a credentialed digital signature — CAC-based, in a reader that handles it — on an electronic one. A typed name satisfies neither method. Enter the date next to it before you close the file.
Then check your work against the usual failures: an obsolete edition, empty required boxes, handwriting nobody can read after scanning, wrong date format, missing signature or date.
Look up an unclear item on the form face before anywhere else, then in not stated. Should the two texts conflict, the directive is the one you follow.
Download the form
Begin by choosing a file. Available here: PDF. Plan for 1 pages and about 38 entries.
Handle xfdl in two steps. First confirm you have IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or a compatible reader on your machine; ordinary pdf software will report the file as broken. Once the viewer is running, download and fill the form.
You will not be charged for any of these; the whole set is free. Before you start entering data, save the file to your computer and open it there. Fields behave far more reliably in a desktop reader than in a browser preview.
What the form asks for
- Report date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day, no dividers).
- 1. Prisoner name (last, first, middle).
- 4. Housing unit/dorm.
- 5. Cellblock.
- 6. Detail.
- 7. Cell no./bunk no.
- 8. Observation. a. Type of observation: press space bar to mark X in first box if favorable, second box if unfavorable.
- X if injury observed.
- X if behavioral observation.
- b. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- c. Time.
- d. Location.
- e. Was prisoner notified about this report? X first box if yes, second box if no.
- 9. Observation reported by. a. Name (last, first, middle).9. Observation reported by. a. Name (last, first, middle).
- b. Grade.
- c. Title.
- d. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 10. Witness. a. Name (last, first, middle initial).
- b. Grade.
- c. Title.
- d. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 11. Observation summary. Give an in-depth description of the observation; include all necessary information.
- 12. Signature of reporting person.
- b. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
Now that it is complete, send it where not stated or your local procedure says it goes. Before you do, make yourself a copy — scan it or save the file elsewhere. It costs you nothing and saves you the whole exercise if the original goes missing.
Should you need a related form, look it up by its number. The DD sequence is Department-wide, which makes your search simple: no service qualifier, no branch-specific variant to track down.
Here is where people go wrong. They see a number in an instruction and download whichever form matches it. But DA and DD are separate systems — Army-specific in one case, Department-wide under not stated in the other — so check which series you were sent to before you take the file.
Do not archive this file and reuse it in a year. Forms are reissued as directives are revised, as data requirements shift, and as statutory notice text is amended. Your protection is simple: download fresh each time and confirm the edition date.
Before you go, note what is not covered here. You have the blank form and instructions for completing it; you do not have legal guidance, and no statement on this page determines what any office will do with your submission. Direct those questions to not stated, to the personnel office that serves you, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2713?
- DD Form 2713, Prisoner Observation Report, March 2013
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?