FY 2022 West Virginia State Justice Statistics Program

The State of West Virginia currently uses the Offender Information System (OIS) to collect information regarding those who have entered the criminal justice system. OIS is the main source of data that is used by the Department of Corrections in West Virginia. The purpose of the proposed project is to analyze how other states utilize data that is not collected in OIS and to show the significance of the missing data. The project will focus on sentencing length, crime categories and parole revocation. Currently there is a gap in information where there is little to no collected data. The primary activities of this project will be comparing other states' sentencing, crime categories and parole revocation data to West Virginia's collected data and weigh the importance of the missing data. The West Virginia Sentencing Commission made a request for data that was not able to be fulfilled due to the lack of data on sentencing, crime categories and parole revocation. The project will consist of a systematic review of data collected from other states and use descriptive statistics to show the importance of the data that is being collected in other states. The outcomes of the project are projected to show that the data that is missing should be collected to allow the state of West Virginia to have sentencing data, standardized crime categories and parole revocation data. The missing data is pertinent to the analytical methods currently being used in West Virginia. The more information that is being collected allows for more precise reports. It is intended for this project to shed light on the missing data that is not being collected and allow the state of West Virginia to have more accurate data on sentencing length, crime categories and parole revocation. This project will have future effects on the data collection methods currently being used in West Virginia as well as bringing more detailed information in future report findings.