Data integration and analysis to facilitate evidence-based decision making in the Albemarle-Charlottesville criminal justice system

The Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail currently houses about 160% of its rated capacity[1]. This overcrowding can contribute to recidivism and jeopardize public safety. The Charlottesville criminal justice system seeks to analyze factors that affect recidivism and jail overcrowding but existing criminal justice agency data systems were not designed to support the studies needed to identify and analyze these factors. This paper describes the development of a prototype data system that will support evidenced-based decision making by integrating existing legacy systems and creating a user interface through which users can perform empirical analyses. Stakeholders throughout the criminal justice system can use the prototype as the foundation for a fully integrated system.