State of Arizona Implementation of the Justice Counts Program

PROPOSAL ABSTRACT
 

The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC), Arizona’s State Administering Agency for federal criminal justice funds, is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $400,000.00 to plan, coordinate, and build the needed infrastructure at the state level to support the implementation of the Justice Counts metrics. The proposed project will advance Arizona’s goal of increasing access to data and using actionable data to make policy and budgetary decisions for programs and initiatives
 

In recent years, Arizona has placed a heavy emphasis on using data to inform policy and decision-making. However, it is often difficult for policymakers to find and access these data. During the 2021 legislative session, House Bill (HB) 2166 was passed and signed into law which designates the ACJC as the state’s central collection point for criminal justice data. The bill mandates the ACJC to conduct a comprehensive survey of readily collected and reportable criminal justice data housed within management systems at local and state criminal justice agencies and provide findings from the survey to the Governor and Legislature. In addition to providing the data inventory report, the ACJC anticipates that successful funding and implementation of the Justice Counts metrics will drive the Arizona Legislature’s interest in expanding data collection and dissemination to include other key metrics from the statewide survey. 
 

The ACJC will work collaboratively with Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Training and Technical Assistance provider over the three year period to ensure proper implementation and utilization of the Justice Counts metrics. The ACJC will also provide training and technical assistance to other state and local agencies on using the dissemination tools and maximizing the use of the Justice Counts tools to meet each users’ specific decision-making needs. This project supports the DOJ's mission of improving state governments’ capacity to set goals for their criminal justice systems, measure whether they are achieving them, and use the results to make data-driven policy decisions.