Putting Data to Work in the Criminal Justice System | OAS Episode 269

The focus of this podcast is how to use criminal justice data to better understand how a range of programs affect people in the justice system and how policymakers can use such data to decide which programs to support.

Criminal justice data in the U.S. is fragmented. Traditionally, there's been no structure to collect and integrate data in a consistent fashion that would allow policymakers to see trends across the states, regions or the nation.

To better understand the issue, we sat down with Mike Mueller-Smith, an associate professor of economics at the University of Michigan and the director of the Criminal Justice Administrative Record System, or CJARS. CJARS is a joint project between the University of Michigan and the U.S. Census Bureau. The decade-old effort seeks to modernize the data reporting and collection and allow policymakers to track people from their first encounter with the justice system through the eventual resolution of their case.

Mueller-Smith explained how the project came to be and how legislators and others in state government and beyond can use it.

Our other guest is Senator Barry Usher of Montana, who serves as majority whip and is the president of NCSL. Usher, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been a long-time advocate for collecting and using criminal justice data to better inform policy. He discussed legislation passed in Montana and how he thinks it will help the state better evaluate criminal justice programs in the future.

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