DC Statistical Analysis Center 2019 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 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 realigned 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. 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 the Special Emphasis project, the DC CJCC will build off of prior year efforts by using their JUSTIS (Integrated Justice Information System) to develop a Justice Statistical Analysis Tool (JSAT). The purpose of JSAT is to enhance and automate justice information sharing in the District for the purpose of research and/or analysis and to enhance justice system agencies’ knowledge, and the public’s knowledge, as appropriate, of the state of the District’s justice system. JSAT is comprised of two components: the JSAT Enterprise (available to authorized criminal justice personnel) and the JSAT Public Portal. The key to realizing efficiencies from JSAT is the inclusion of record-level identifiable data from local and federal agencies, which the DC SAC would then use to produce timely, cross-agency analysis.

With the FY 2019 project, the DC CJCC will leverage the development of the JSAT to expand their ability to conduct analysis and research. Consequently, due the unique nature and placement of the DC CJCC in a law enforcement and criminal justice environment that handles information from local and federal partners, the DC CJCC needs to ensure that the data exchange technology systems using and housing this information are compliant with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA). This project will support implementation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Risk Management Framework (RMF) Process, which is necessary for demonstrating FISMA compliance. The process is labor and time-intensive, including a review of more 300 possible security controls, and will involve resources to procure an IT consultant to help develop and implement security controls and an external auditor to evaluate the system security plan and its implementation.

(CA/NCF)