Identifying Global Data and Standards for the Integrated Criminal Justice Information System for Research, Analysis, and Public Policy (Year 2)

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 Massachusetts Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) is located within the Research and Policy Analysis Division (RPAD). RPAD is a division within the Office of Grants and Research (OGR), the arm of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) that serves as the State Administrative Agency for federal criminal justice, highway safety and homeland security grant funds. The Massachusetts SAC in conjunction with RPAD provides public safety and criminal justice research, policy analysis, program evaluation, and information services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SAC functions primarily as a resource for state and local government representatives. The SAC provides technical and research assistance to the Secretary of Public Safety and Security.

Under this award, the MA SAC proposes a continuation of their 2014 Integrated Criminal Justice Information System (ICJIS) strategic bond plan project. The strategic bond plan is intended to centralize and upgrade numerous critical criminal justice and public safety databases. Prior to this effort, a formalized plan maximizing the operational, analytical and policymaking value of these systems did not exist. Consequently, key data must be identified, standardized, integrated and centralized across a reporting platform. Simultaneously, the business and organizational needs of various criminal justice stakeholders who will not only use this technology, but also will be salient in its implementation and management, need to be identified and considered.

In year one, the SAC began identifying the relevant data for the ICJIS platform. For instance, SAC staff reviewed variables that could inform the reporting tool from ICJIS and corresponding data from CORI and iCORI (criminal history and demographic variables) thus starting to build on a data dictionary. SAC staff also completed a survey from the vendor xFact entitled, “Data Analytics Project: Refining Analysis Question and Scenarios” to better understand the scope and type of data available. The intent of the survey was to help xFact gain a more detailed understanding of the types of analytics-based questions to be answered and data that would be used to answer those questions.

CA/NCF

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 Massachusetts Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) is located within the Research and Policy Analysis Division (RPAD). RPAD is a division within the Office of Grants and Research (OGR), the arm of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) that serves as the State Administrative Agency for federal criminal justice, highway safety and homeland security grant funds. The Massachusetts SAC in conjunction with RPAD provides public safety and criminal justice research, policy analysis, program evaluation, and information services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SAC functions primarily as a resource for state and local government representatives. The SAC provides technical and research assistance to the Secretary of Public Safety and Security.

Under this award, the MA SAC will continue the efforts of their 2014 Integrated Criminal Justice Information System (ICJIS) strategic bond plan project. In the 2014 and 2015 projects, the MA EOPSS used SJS funds to develop an Integrated Criminal Justice Information System (ICJIS) to centralize and upgrade the databases used for operations, research and policymaking. While the ICJIS system is a technology improvement, the SAC realizes that it carries far more significance to the use and expanded capabilities of a sole technology system. This system transcends the technology aspect and has enhanced the business needs of criminal justice stakeholders, organizations and governing structures to implement, manage, and utilize the technology.

In 2016, MA SAC will identify global data and standards for the ICJIS platform that will enhance research, analysis, and public policy decision-making. The MA SAC plans to accomplish this goal by, first, selecting individuals from a group of criminal justice practitioners to form a Data and Standards Team (the Team). This Team would be responsible for identifying and developing standards for the data that will become more readily available as a result of these automated data exchanges. Consolidating and synthesizing the data will support statewide criminal justice research and data-driven policy decision-making. Using the “Data Quality Assessment Tool for Administrative Data” as a guide, the Team will work with each agency to develop data dictionaries and collect qualitative and quantitative data about the administrative data assessing its accessibility, interpretability, coherence, accuracy, and institutional environment. The dictionaries and assessment data would be translated into reference documents to drive discussion with researchers, agency business leaders, and public policy groups to identify the data sources and subsets of variables most relevant for research, policy, and agency business and performance indicators.(CA/NCF)

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