Abstract:

In late 2020, Arnold Ventures convened a series of roundtable discussions wtih over two dozen criminal justice experts from a variety of disciplines to explore ideas to improve the quality and availability of criminal justice data for research and evidence-based policy making. The goal was to address the challenge that too often, criminal justice data is incomplete, inaccurate, out of date, or inaccessible to researchers and policy makers. This document includes recommendations considered at the roundtable sessions. The first session, held on November 19, 2020 addressed recommendations to improve federal data collection. The second session, held on December 10, 2020 addressed recommendations focused on data collected and used primarily at the state and local level.  Deliberations at these sessions culminated in a report, “Campaign for Criminal Justice Modernization: Because the Road to Reform is Paved by Data.”