2020 State Justice Statistics- Department of Juvenile Justice Phase I

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 Kentucky Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center (CJSAC) was officially transferred from the Office of the Attorney General to the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet (KJPSC), Office of the Kentucky Criminal Justice Council, in March 2000. Because of the SAC’s placement within the KJPSC, the research efforts and daily operations are directly linked to the Cabinet’s policy and planning goals as well as other statewide and national efforts to collect, analyze, and disseminate data on topics that impact law enforcement and criminal justice efforts. Elzie Burgher is the CJSAC Executive Director, and is responsible for the SAC’s day-to-day operations and major research projects. Phase I (2020-86-CX-KO22) of the funding will focus efforts within two key State Justice Statistics (SJS) program areas: Core Capacity-Building Projects, Priority B: Collecting and analyzing data on the criminal justice system processes; and Special-Emphasis Capacity-Building Projects, Priority B: Analysis of state criminal history records. The emphasis of this project will be to analyze the current operations within the Juvenile Justice system and identify opportunities to improve or enhance services. The scope of Phase I will emphasize the gathering of data and analysis of current practices. Within this scope, criminal justice system records will be reviewed on topics that will include, but not be limited to, the following: current policies and procedures; current data practices and systems; current MOUs, LOIs, and information sharing across systems; state guidelines and legislation; federal guidelines and legislation; and programmatic and facility best practices, including state spotlights and promising practices. For a full scope of the project, please refer to the attachment “Revised Project Summary for 2020-86CS-KO22”.