Measuring Recidivism of Inmates Released from the Arizona Department of Corrections

The State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program is designed to maintain and enhance each State's capacity to address criminal justice issues through the 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.

With funds from the 2007 State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program, the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) will conduct a series of recidivism analyses using inmate data obtained from the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) that have been merged with criminal history data from the Arizona computerized criminal history repository. Using these data, SAC staff and government and university research partners plan to analyze recidivism rates by various offense and offender characteristics. Where the data will allow, recidivism will be measured by re-arrest, reconviction, and re-incarceration at one, three, and five year intervals. The collaborative effort will help build upon each State agencies' understanding of crime and Arizona's criminal justice system, more specifically, the successes and challenges of the correctional system and the men and women that pass through it.

NCA/NCF