Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Criminal Justice Administrative

Records System (CJARS)

Keith Finlay

Business Development Sta

Economic Reimbursable Surveys Division

U.S. Census Bureau

October 26, 2022

1/9
Criminal Justice Administrative Records System

(CJARS)

• Data infrastructure project to support the next generation of statistics

and research on the criminal justice system

• Partnership between Census Bureau and University of Michigan (UM)

started in 2016

• UM collects and harmonizes state and local criminal justice data

• At Census Bureau, these data can be linked to survey and administrative

records

2/9
CJARS project goals

• Collect, harmonize, and link longitudinal, multi-jurisdictional CJ data to

track individuals and cases across space and time

• Enable timely and innovative federal statistical products about CJ

system and justice-involved population

• Provide national research platform for qualified researchers on

approved projects

3/9
CJARS stakeholders

• University of Michigan acquires and harmonizes data from criminal

justice agencies, including law enforcement, judicial, and corrections

agencies

• Census Bureau links CJARS with other socioeconomic data to build data

products for data providers, develop new data products, and improve

operations

• Qualified researchers on approved projects analyze anonymized CJARS

data in the FSRDCs

• Communities and policymakers use CJARS-derived statistical products

to understand the performance of the criminal justice system

4/9
CJARS data coverage

• >300 data providers

• >1000 counties

• States with coverage of

state court, state DOC,

and/or state repository

represent >59% of U.S.

population

• 3b records

• 177m CJ events

• 38m unique individuals Statewide

coverage,

2+ domains

Statewide

coverage,

1 domain

Partial

geographic

coverage

Caseload

snapshot

5/9
CJARS innovations in this session

• Oense classification tool supports work at other agencies and projects

• Automated data quality methods enable a small sta to harmonize data

from many agencies

• Important research demonstrates the value of using CJARS within the

Census Bureau’s Data Linkage Infrastructure

6/9
Additional resources

• Project website at Census: https://census.gov/cjars

• Project website at UM: https://cjars.isr.umich.edu

• Data documentation:

https://cjars.isr.umich.edu/data-documentation-download

• Oense classification tool: https://cjars-toc.isr.umich.edu

7/9
Thank you

Keith Finlay

keith.ferguson.finlay@census.gov

301-763-6056

8/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

9/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

9/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

9/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

9/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

9/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

9/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

9/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

9/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

9/9
Project scope and data collection

Arrest Pre-trial detention Adjudication Probation Incarceration Parole

18k police

departments

3k sheri’s

oces/3k jails

50 state

departments

of corrections

community

corrections

agencies

3k prosecutor’s

oces

50 state court

admins/3k

criminal courts

50 state

criminal

records

repositories

Out of scope: civil court proceedings, trac oenses below misdemeanor level,

crime reports not associated with arrest, juvenile records not transferred to

criminal court, records without personally identifiable information 9/9