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Automation of the District’s State of Justice Reporting

Award Information

Award #
2015-BJ-CX-K014
Location
Status
Closed
Funding First Awarded
2015
Total funding (to date)
$509,375

Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2015, $60,000)

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. CJCC was established by the Council of the District of Columbia and Congress as a coordinating body tasked with bringing together the federal and local criminal justice system agencies operating within the District. 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 this award, the DC SAC proposes to create a unified report of the District's criminal justice system and disseminating the reports via the Internet. Currently, DC has a report, Public Safety and Justice in the District of Columbia, which brings together various points of interest across local and federal criminal justice partners to be reviewed, analyzed and studied to determine crime trends. This report has historically been used as a sole source of city-wide data. While useful, several limitations prevent the report from being used or functional enough to provide the desired level of impact. Currently, the report information is manually collected, compiled and disseminated which provides a great snapshot of any point in time but not as responsive, timely or relevant as the changing needs of such a complex criminal justice environment.

CA/NCF

Date Created: August 18, 2015