Better data for improved criminal justice
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Connecting state and local government leaders
The Justice Counts initiative will give state decision-makers access to up-to-date, actionable criminal justice data.
To help states craft data-driven policies and budgets for criminal justice issues, the Justice Department launched a new initiative to give policymakers the criminal justice metrics and aggregation tools they need to make the most of data already collected.
Led by the Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, Justice Counts is working with 21 partner organizations across the criminal justice system to deliver more actionable data on crime, incarceration, community supervision and related topics, a press release said.
Currently, many policymakers are compelled to make important public safety and justice decisions based on outdated or incomplete information, CSG Justice Center Director Megan Quattlebaum said. This program will also benefit state and local governments that lack the time and technology to create scalable solutions.
Inconsistent data can also erode public confidence in the criminal justice system, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said during a virtual conference. Not having up-to-date information can force budget agencies and lawmakers to make critical safety decisions in a vacuum and permit sensational narratives to exist without accurate statistics to contest or confirm those claims.
“Justice and equity demand that we constantly seek to improve the [criminal justice] system’s operations, and that we operate with transparency,” Gupta said.
Justice Counts has released dashboards for every state showing latest trends across key indicators using the latest publicly available data from corrections agencies and jails. The National Corrections Data Dashboard provides an overview of prison, probation and post-release supervision population data and how often it is being reported, allowing officials to identify gaps and inconsistencies in corrections reporting.
“This impressive collaborative of partners is working together to make criminal justice data visible, digestible, actionable and transparent,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Amy L. Solomon of the Office of Justice Programs. “The Justice Counts initiative is building the data infrastructure this country needs — and will use — to create safe and just communities.”