Iowa's Statistical Analysis Center Research and Data Projects

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 Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP), codified as Iowa’s SAC, is located within the Iowa Department of Human Rights (DHR). CJJP will use 2020 SJS funds for two core capacity projects (Decision Matrix Enhancement) (Data Dashboard) and two special emphasis projects (JDW Data Quality Analysis) (Iowa DOC Program Evaluation).

For the Decision Matrix Enhancements project, the Iowa SAC will use funds for modifications to the Iowa Delinquency Assessment (IDA) and lessons learned from the pilot sites that were conducted with prior SJS funds. In 2019, the IDA was evaluated with a recommendation to move from three risk levels to using four risk levels. The project will increase capacity by adding an additional data driven tool. The matrix will be fully integrated within the juvenile justice system, providing guidance as to the supervision level indicated for a given youth, as well as informing staff as to appropriateness of service in an effort to reduce recidivism.

For the Data Dashboard project, SJS funds will be used for enhancements of CJJPs dashboard with predictive models (PMs). The addition of PMs to CJJPs public dashboard will allow users to visualize future trends for adult criminal and juvenile justice decision points. Development of the PM, with the option for interactive capabilities, will allow users to visualize trends, identify geographical differences, and follow spatial patterns of those trends. Trends identified by PMs will be used by policy makers for policy creation and decision making and by correctional staff to evaluate different program or treatment options for incarcerated individuals.

For the Justice Data Warehouse (JDW) Data Quality Analysis project, SJS funds will be used for a published standardized approach to assess data quality in the JDW, which receives data from the Judicial Branch and Department of Corrections (DOC). Goals of the project include: document conformance, reliability and completeness of data in the JDW; work with partner agencies to establish methods to increase data quality; and establish on-going procedures to monitor data quality and consistency within the JDW. The project will help build capacity to the JDW, which is a central repository for criminal and juvenile justice information for policy-making decisions.

For the Evaluation of Iowa DOC’s Apprenticeship Programs, funds will be used to conduct a program evaluation and outcomes assessment for the Apprenticeship Programs. Goals of the project include: identify key process information for the program selection and enrollment; obtain key process information from apprentices and program staff through interviews and surveys; analyze success metrics and recidivism rates among apprentices and other incarcerated individuals; and incorporate new metrics to the evaluation process to assess additional performance measures and outcomes.

(CA/NCF)