Iowa's 2018 Statistical Analysis Center Project

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 Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP), codified as Iowa’s SAC, is located within the Iowa Department of Human Rights (DHR). CJJP will use SJS funds for a core capacity project (Juvenile Justice Decision Matrix Pilot) and two special emphasis projects (Evaluation of Iowa’s Recidivism Reduction Initiative) (Review of Increases in Violent Crime).

For the Juvenile Justice Decision Matrix (JJDM) project, CJJP will continue with efforts concerning the state’s Juvenile Justice Reform and Reinvestment Initiative (JJRI) through a pilot of a dispositional matrix in juvenile court. Through previously SJS funded projects, JJRI has delivered and executed the Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol (SPEP), a diagnostic tool developed to assess the effectiveness of services for youth programs in terms of recidivism reduction. This project will seek to finalize development of the Iowa JJDM and pilot the model for use in the juvenile justice system. Completion of the decision matrix tool will help guide decision-making regarding the supervision and services within the juvenile justice system as well as implementation of a pilot using the instrument in a limited number of jurisdictions within Iowa. Steps for the project include: 1) finalizing the JJDM; 2) establishing instructions and protocols for using the matrix; 3) establishing a process for collecting outcome data; piloting the matrix; and 4) analyzing and reporting the outcome data and recommendations.

For the Recidivism Reduction Initiative project, CJJP will conduct an analysis of system reform efforts, policy changes, and subsequent outcomes pertaining to the Second Chance Act, Statewide Recidivism Reduction (SRR) Initiative. The SSR project is a collaborative effort throughout state agencies to increase public safety through recidivism strategies while developing sustainable system-wide change. In addition to the analysis of the SSR, CJJP will also assess and document the data quality and exchange of Department of Corrections (DOC) data through the Iowa Corrections Offender Network (ICON). The SSR involves five components: training, workload, job competency, reentry, and quality improvement. Activities for the SSR project include: developing an interview methodology; identifying key personnel for the interview; conducting the interviews and collect the results; analyzing workload study and document findings; conducting recidivism analysis; comparing national review of correctional practice; reviewing ICON data and practice issues and record recommendations; and completing final evaluation and assessment reports.

For the Violent Crime Review project, CJJP will extract and analyze violent crime data by geography. The goals are to conduct data analysis and identify indicators factoring into increases in violent crime, research incidence of increases in violent crime, focusing on rural areas, and explore available behavioral services data available through the Iowa Department of Public Health (DPH). The analysis of data will first include obtaining information from many state agencies, including DPH and Iowa Inpatient Outpatient Data Collection System (IPOP). Activities for the Violent Crime Review project include: extracting and analyzing violent crime data; establishing methodology and determining the data resources; collecting and analyzing external data; conducting a national review of violent crime in rural areas; and completing the final report with findings and recommendations. (CA/NCF)