Temporal Patterns of Arrest in a Cohort of Adults Receiving Mental Health Services: The Massachusetts Mental Health / Criminal Justice Cohort Study

Criminal Justice Involvement among Clientele is a Major Concern for State Mental Health Agencies. Mental health and criminal justice systems provide services at various points along the interface of these systems to reduce offending and re-offending, including: - Diversion programs - Mental Health Courts - Re-Entry Little information about scope of offending to guide service development. This study provides data on the prevalence, type and temporal patterns of arrest for a large sample of adults followed for roughly 9.5 years

Information Sharing and Interoperability in Law Enforcement: An Investigation of Federal Criminal Justice Information Systems Use by State/Local Law Enforcement Organizations

This thesis investigates the frequency of use and perceptions of usefulness of federal criminal justice information systems among state and local law enforcement personnel and certain IS environmental factors that affect usage. The study is predicated by a demonstrated need for increased information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration among the three tiers of law enforcement as public safety threats within U.S. borders increase in complexity; e.g., the Murrah Federal Building bombing, Columbine High School shooting, 9/11 terrorist attacks, and D.C. sniper case. The results of this research indicate high usage and perceived usefulness of the National Crime Information Center Network (NCIC Net), National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS), Uniform Crime Reporting/National Incident Based Reporting System (UCR/NIBRS), National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), and federal LE websites. The results also indicated that the IS environmental factors information quality and trust influenced the usage and perceived usefulness of federal criminal justice information systems

Alaskan Village Justice: An Exploratory Study

Initiated by the Alaska Criminal Justice Planning Agency, this is the first comprehensive study of public safety and the administration of justice in the predominately Alaska Native villages of rural or "bush" Alaska. Researchers visited 56 communities within seven of the twelve Alaska Native corporation regions in the state as part of an exploratory effort to collect crime and justice information for use by the State of Alaska in criminal justice policy development in rural areas of the state. Information was gathered in three ways: (1) review of available documents related to each of the communities; (2) direct observations of the communities and justice operations within them; and (3) structured interviews with community residents to elict both object and subjective information about operation of public safety and social control systems. The 175 interviewees included community officials, village police officers, health aides, and magistrates. The report addresses customs, law, and crime in village Alaska; context on justice services in Native communities; police services; legal and judicial services; prisoner detention and corrections; and recommendations for improving the delivery of justice services to rural communities. The study concluded that bush residents do not receive equal protection regarding public safety and justice services in comparison with their counterparts in larger Alaska communities; that the State of Alaska does not have have adequate data needed to identify and address public safety and justice problems in bush areas; and that bush villages and rural Natives are not homogeneous entities and hence require varied and particularized responses by the state.Alaska Criminal Justice Planning Agency Grant No. 76-A-044I. Introduction / II. Community Profile / III. Custom, Law and Crime / IV. Justice Services to Native Communities in Perspective / V. Police Services / VI. Legal and Judicial Services / VII. Prisoner Detenton and Corrections / VIII. Observations and Possible Actions / Appendice

WCLD: Curated Large Dataset of Criminal Cases from Wisconsin Circuit Courts

Machine learning based decision-support tools in criminal justice systems are subjects of intense discussions and academic research. There are important open questions about the utility and fairness of such tools. Academic researchers often rely on a few small datasets that are not sufficient to empirically study various real-world aspects of these questions. In this paper, we contribute WCLD, a curated large dataset of 1.5 million criminal cases from circuit courts in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. We used reliable public data from 1970 to 2020 to curate attributes like prior criminal counts and recidivism outcomes. The dataset contains large number of samples from five racial groups, in addition to information like sex and age (at judgment and first offense). Other attributes in this dataset include neighborhood characteristics obtained from census data, detailed types of offense, charge severity, case decisions, sentence lengths, year of filing etc. We also provide pseudo-identifiers for judge, county and zipcode. The dataset will not only enable researchers to more rigorously study algorithmic fairness in the context of criminal justice, but also relate algorithmic challenges with various systemic issues. We also discuss in detail the process of constructing the dataset and provide a datasheet. The WCLD dataset is available at \url{https://clezdata.github.io/wcld/}.Comment: (Forthcoming) Proceedings of the 37th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2023) Track on Datasets and Benchmark

Hobbes in Hollywood: Crime and Its Outcomes in the Natural State

This content analysis introduces a genre of film that paralleled the rise of conservatism in the United States (1979–1996). Based on the words of Hobbes, the films are perceived to represent the world in its natural state, absent the proper social and law enforcement authorities within existing civilized society. Prior literature on this topic and subject are examined, as are the real measures of criminal justice system breadth over this period, including crime, victimization, arrests, imprisonments, police staffing data, and information on dollars spent. The results of the content analysis reveal the cold, harsh, brutal, nasty, and short world of Hobbes, with murder the main method of conflict resolution and with police, courts, and prison systems noticeably absent. The crimes visualized in this sample are compared to the reality; the differences are as stark as the images of a Hobbesian world and leave the viewer thankful for the systems we do have after seeing what life would be like without them

State of Iowa traffic Records and Criminal Justice Information Systems (TRACIS), 1970

This report presents the basic system design for the State of Iowa Traffic Records and Criminal Justice Information System (TRACIS)

The Nebraska Minority and Justice Implementation Committee Progress Report

The Nebraska Minority and Justice Task Force was formed in 1999 by the Nebraska Supreme Court and the Nebraska State Bar Association (NSBA) to examine issues of racial and ethnic fairness within the Nebraska court and legal systems. Through two substantial grants from the State Justice Institute (SJI), administered through the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, the Minority and Justice Task Force undertook a two-year research project, which culminated in a 200-page final report (the Final Report is available online at www.nebar.com and www.unl.edu/ppc). The report investigated topics as diverse as potential bias in criminal prosecution, sentencing, jury composition, court personnel hiring, law school admissions, and any number of other related issues over four comprehensive areas of the system of justice: access to the courts, personnel and employment practices in the courts, the legal profession in the state of Nebraska, and criminal and juvenile court processes. Approximately a dozen U.S state Supreme Courts have undertaken similar projects approaching this scale, but no other project has been as comprehensive. The major reommendation of the Final Report was to establish a standing committee to implement the Task Force recommendations. The Minority and Justice Implementation Committee, consisting of a racially and ethnically diverse group of judges, lawyers and community leaders, was formed in 2003 and continues its work of implementing the Task Force recommendations. In addition to summarizing the major findings made in the Final Report, this Report discusses the progress made be the Implementation Committee and other justice agencies and organizations since the release of the Final Report. The Implementation Committee is at the beginning stages of a long-term effort. While it may take years to fully implement many of the recommendations, the Implementation Committee is developing long-term plans to promote change. To provide feedback or suggestions to the Implementation Committee please use the form provided in Appendix C and return it to the NSBA. Or click on the contact link provided on the NSBA\u27s website at www.nebar.com/publicinfo/minority_justice.htm Interest in the Minority and Justice Implementation Committee\u27s mission and activities is appreciated and encouraged. To receive continual information on the Implementation Committee\u27s efforts and events, please print your contact information on the form provided in Appendix D and return it to the Nebraska State Bar Association

Towards sentence compliance: Examining PFMA offender pathways through Missoula Municipal and Justice Courts

In recent years, there has been great concern among those who work in the criminal justice system, in Missoula, Montana, about the processing of domestic violence offenders. Many of these people believe that domestic violence defendants are not being consistently prosecuted, and that convicted offenders are not completing their mandated anger management program. To address these concerns, this analysis examines the adjudication, from arrest to sentencing, of a cohort of defendants appearing in Missoula Municipal Court and Missoula County Justice Court. The sample includes defendants whose final charge between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008 was Partner/Family Member Assault (PFMA) per Montana Code Annotated [MCA] 45-5-206. Databases were constructed using information extracted from Missoula Municipal Court and Missoula County Justice Court FullCourt data systems. Because this local system provides only jurisdiction-specific data, cases were matched and populated by information from the State of Montana Repository data. Montana law requires than an offender pay for and complete 40 hours of anger management upon conviction of partner/family member assault. However many offenders who are mandated to anger management are not compliant with their sentence. The results of this study indicate a non-completion rate of 58.3% in Municipal Court and 55.2% in Justice Court. This study examines the effect of chemical dependency treatment and misdemeanor probation on the likelihood of anger management program completion. The findings of this study have encouraged changes in Missoula’s criminal justice system. Specifically, a grant application was submitted to the Montana Board of Crime Control to hire a sentence compliance monitor within the City Attorney’s Office of Missoula

The Nebraska Minority and Justice Implementation Committee Progress Report

The Nebraska Minority and Justice Task Force was formed in 1999 by the Nebraska Supreme Court and the Nebraska State Bar Association (NSBA) to examine issues of racial and ethnic fairness within the Nebraska court and legal systems. Through two substantial grants from the State Justice Institute (SJI), administered through the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, the Minority and Justice Task Force undertook a two-year research project, which culminated in a 200-page final report (the Final Report is available on-line at www.nebar.com and www.unl.edu/ppc). The report investigated topics as diverse as potential bias in criminal prosecution, sentencing, jury composition, court personnel hiring, law school admissions, and any number of other related issues over four comprehensive areas of the system of justice: access to the courts, personnel and employment practices in the courts, the legal profession in the state of Nebraska, and criminal and juvenile court processes. Approximately a dozen U.S. state Supreme Courts have undertaken similar projects approaching this scale, but no other project has been as comprehensive. The major recommendation of the Final Report was to establish a standing committee to implement the Task Force recommendations. The Minority and Justice Implementation Committee, consisting of a racially and ethnically diverse group of judges, lawyers and community leaders, has been formed and is currently working to implement the Task Force recommendations. In addition to summarizing the major findings made in the Final Report, this Report discusses the progress made by the Implementation Committee and other justice agencies and organizations since the release of the Final Report. The Implementation Committee is at the beginning stages of a long-term effort. While it may take years to fully implement many of the recommendations, the Implementation Committee is developing long-term plans to promote change. To provide feedback or suggestions to the Implementation Committee please use the form provided in Appendix C and return it to the NSBA. Or click on the feedback link provided on the NSBA’s website at www.nebar.com Interest in the Minority and Justice Implementation Committee’s mission and activities is appreciated and encouraged. To receive continual information on the Implementation Committee’s efforts and events, please print your contact information on the form provided in Appendix D and return it to the NSBA