Automation of the District’s State of Justice Reporting

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 Statistical Analysis Center for the District of Columbia (DC SAC) was established in 2001 by a Mayoral Executive Order to provide a division dedicated to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of criminal justice system information. The DC SAC was originally a unit of the Office of Research, Analysis, and Evaluation under the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice. In March 2006, a transfer occurred that organizationally reassigned the DC SAC to be housed as a unit within the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), an independent District agency. The CJCC’s mission is to serve as the forum for identifying and addressing juvenile and criminal justice issues while working collectively with all components of the District of Columbia’s criminal justice system. The DC SAC, as the research arm of the CJCC, provides the data, research and analytical support needed by the CJCC to inform their activities and support decisions. The DC SAC also provides statistical information and technical support to District agencies.

Under Project 1, the DC SAC will continue efforts of initiated under the FY 2015 SJS program to develop and automated Public Safety and Justice Report. With FY 2016 funds, the SAC will carry out Phase II of this project to conduct the requisite testing and implementation of the automated report. Testing will allow the DC SAC and contributing agencies to identify red flags or gaps between the data sources and the report. In addition, contributing agencies will be able to see how different data elements are linked through the criminal justice system. By collecting, sharing and examining a report that paints a picture of the system as a whole, District officials can identify key areas of need and ways in which various points of the system may affect each other and strategize for improving system operations and effectiveness during the entire process.

Under Project 2, the DC SAC will use the Washington DC Interagency Justice Information Sharing (IJIS) system, referred to in the District as JUSTIS to establish a companion interface for analytical purposes, allowing for more efficient and accurate response to policy-relevant research questions spanning the breadth of the various agencies involved – police, courts, probation, parole, reentry. This requires enhancing the use of current data feeds and their associated query and report modules, as well as expanding the data feeds to new entities with similar capabilities. Additionally, a data portal that operates parallel to JUSTIS would allow analysis and reporting of real-time information, protecting personally identifiable information and sharing knowledge across multiple systems at once. The SAC will parse efforts into three (3) phases to ensure the work will enhance current data utilization, expand the scope of data available and create an analytical portal for efficient and accurate response to policy-relevant questions. (CA/NCF)

Note: This project contains a research and/or evaluation component, as defined in applicable law.

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 Statistical Analysis Center for the District of Columbia (DC SAC) was established in 2001 by a Mayoral Executive Order to provide a division dedicated to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of criminal justice system information. The DC SAC was originally a unit of the Office of Research, Analysis, and Evaluation under the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice. In March 2006, a transfer occurred that organizationally realigned the DC SAC to be housed as a unit within the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), an independent District agency. The CJCC’s mission is to serve as the forum for identifying and addressing juvenile and criminal justice issues while working collectively with all components of the District of Columbia’s criminal justice system. The DC SAC, as the research arm of the CJCC, provides the data, research and analytical support needed by the CJCC to inform their activities and support decisions. The DC SAC also provides statistical information and technical support to District agencies.

Under the Special Emphasis project, the DC SAC will continue the efforts of their 2016 project and use the Washington DC Interagency Justice Information Sharing (IJIS) system, referred to in the District as JUSTIS, to establish a companion interface for analytical purposes, allowing for more efficient and accurate response to policy-relevant research questions spanning the breadth of the various agencies involved – police, courts, corrections, reentry. This requires enhancing the use of current data feeds and their associated query and report modules, as well as expanding the data feeds to new entities with similar capabilities. Additionally, a data portal that operates parallel to JUSTIS would allow analysis and reporting of real-time information, protecting personally identifiable information and sharing knowledge across multiple systems at once. The SAC will parse efforts into three phases to ensure the work will enhance current data utilization, expand the scope of data available and create an analytical portal for efficient and accurate response to policy-relevant questions.

With this project, DC CJCC successfully focused on leveraging data which is currently available in JUSTIS to reduce reliance on individual data requests from partner agencies, and to achieve agreements for analytic data utilization. (CA/NCF)

Note: This project contains a research and/or evaluation component, as defined in applicable law.

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 Statistical Analysis Center for the District of Columbia (DC SAC) was established in 2001 by a Mayoral Executive Order to provide a division dedicated to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of criminal justice system information. The DC SAC was originally a unit of the Office of Research, Analysis, and Evaluation under the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice. In March 2006, a transfer occurred that organizationally realigned the DC SAC to be housed as a unit within the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), an independent District agency. The CJCC’s mission is to serve as the forum for identifying and addressing juvenile and criminal justice issues while working collectively with all components of the District of Columbia’s criminal justice system. The DC SAC, as the research arm of the CJCC, provides the data, research and analytical support needed by the CJCC to inform their activities and support decisions. The DC SAC also provides statistical information and technical support to District agencies.

Under the Special Emphasis project, the DC SAC will continue the efforts of their 2016 and 2017 project by using the Washington DC Interagency Justice Information Sharing (IJIS) system, referred to in the District as JUSTIS, to establish a companion interface for analytical purposes, allowing for more efficient and accurate response to policy-relevant research questions spanning the breadth of the various agencies involved – police, courts, corrections, reentry. The companion interface is know as the Justice Statistical Analysis Tool or JSAT.

In year one, the DC CJCC successfully focused on leveraging data that was currently available in JUSTIS to reduce reliance on individual data requests from partner agencies, and to achieve agreements for analytic data utilization.

In year two, the DC CJCC used the leveraged data that became available such as new criminal justice and non-criminal justice data sources, and the expansion of current data sets. The CJCC staff created web services, secure data transfer, queries and reports that used this data more efficiently for analytical purposes. With the implementation of the aforementioned tasks, the DC SAC minimized their reliance on individual data requests from partner agencies.

In year three, the DC SAC will continue to build on efforts to leverage and expand the data sources that they establish in previous years to enhance the District of Columbia’s criminal justice data exchange capabilities.

The success of this project will enhance the DC SAC’s ability to analyze data to inform critical policy decisions at every point in the continuum in a more timely and seamless manner. The addition of new data sources and the mechanisms to consume data from these sources will be pursued as resources become available that are not limited to criminal justice partners, but include non-criminal justice data such as census, social, and educational datasets that can enhance analysis of the system from start to finish.
(CA/NCF)