Arizona FY 2012 SJS Program

The State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program is designed to maintain and enhance each state's capacity to address criminal justice issues through collection and analysis of data. The SJS Program provides support to each state to coordinate and conduct statistical activities within the state, conduct research to estimate impacts of legislative and policy changes, and serve as a liaison in assisting BJS to gather data from respondent agencies within their states.

The Arizona Statistical Analysis Center (SAC), located within the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC), will use SJS funds to complete two projects. The SAC will analyze decreasing revenues deposited from surcharges, fines, and fees imposed on convicted offenders into special revenue funds used to support targeted criminal justice activity including drug and gang enforcement, criminal justice system enhancements, and victim assistance to better understand the implications on criminal justice activities that rely on these funds, assess if sentencing practices impact the balances of the funds, and evaluate if the recent economic downturn impacted convicted offenders' ability to pay the surcharges, fines, and fees. A report detailing the study findings will be produced and disseminated to stakeholders and policymakers. To achieve its goal of increasing access to criminal justice data, the SAC will also use SJS funds to develop criminal justice data profiles for each of Arizona's 15 counties that include county specific data from arrest to admissions to the Arizona Department of Corrections. These profiles will be disseminated to county attorneys and posted to the ACJC website.

CA/NCF