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Results for case processing (arizona)

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Author: Beliski, Matthew

Title: State Criminal History Records Improvement: Arizona Felony Case Processing

Summary: In 2009, the Arizona Statistical Analysis Center (AZSAC) of the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) received a grant award1 from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) through the Justice Research & Statistics Association (JRSA) to investigate, collect, and analyze data available throughout Arizona related to felony case processing. Per the original grant proposal and subsequent project meetings, each state grant recipient is expected to give special attention to the data readily available within each state’s criminal history record repository. Project analysts are also encouraged to utilize data from other sources in order to meet the project requirements. In order to better understand the felony case processing data supplied in this report, it is important to briefly review the structure of Arizona’s criminal history record repository. The Arizona Computerized Criminal History (ACCH) is the state repository for all arrest and disposition criminal history record information collected across all criminal justice state agencies. Housed at the Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS), the ACCH repository is an electronic warehouse of criminal justice information for all felony, DUI, aggravated domestic violence, and sexual offenses, pursuant to Arizona Revised Statute §41-1750. Although these are the mandatory ACCH offenses, other offenses are voluntarily deposited in the ACCH repository as well. The ACCH is initially populated by information collected at the time of arrest. An arrest entry does not process without fingerprints being taken; thus, any citation arrest (i.e. cite and release for DUI, etc.) requires that the alleged offender submit to fingerprinting at a later date. Once the prosecutor or the court disposes a case, the data from the final disposition is linked to the arrest data already in the ACCH. If for any reason an arrest leading to fingerprinting has not taken place, the subsequent disposition data will not be entered into the repository, and AZDPS renders the disposition back to the disposition agency for follow-up with law enforcement. Originating disposition agencies also have the ability to amend their dispositions, and as a result, override the disposition data previously available through the original disposition. The felony case processing project is the latest installment in a number of AZSAC projects employing the use of ACCH data provided by the AZDPS. AZSAC staff received multiple ACCH extracts to assess the timeliness, completeness, and overall quality of criminal history records throughout the state. The AZSAC published several reports and fact sheets addressing the quality of state criminal history records, and staff continues to work directly with the Access Integrity Unit at the AZDPS to provide valuable records quality data and information to the records auditors. In the past, AZSAC staff requested additional data extracts to investigate sexual offender recidivism as well as to enhance existing data for the 2004 Arizona Homicide Study. In collaboration with researchers at Arizona State University, AZSAC staff merged data from the Arizona Department of Corrections with ACCH data from the AZDPS to conduct rearrest and reconviction recidivism analyses of sexual offenders released from the Arizona correctional system in 2001. A comprehensive sexual offender recidivism report was published in 2009 and is available on the ACJC web site. Staff at AZDPS recently provided the AZSAC with available criminal history record data for all offenders and victims of homicide in 2004. AZSAC staff continued to work with the data for a later supplement to the report, titled “Homicide in Arizona, 2004.” Finally, Arizona Revised Statute §41-2406 mandates that the ACJC use criminal history record data to examine the reporting of sexual assault throughout Arizona. AZSAC staff established a data sharing agreement with the AZDPS to provide AZSAC with the appropriate annual extract for this reporting requirement. Staff at the ACJC has since institutionalized this report on an annual basis, and continuing improvements to the report add to the report’s value to stakeholders. As a result of the annual data agreement with the AZDPS, the AZSAC requested a full “snapshot” of ACCH arrest and disposition data for the previous 10 years back in January 2009. Because of the relative proximity of the data request to the BJS/JRSA request for proposals, AZSAC staff proceeded with a proposal to investigate and analyze ACCH data as it pertains to felony case processing from the initial arrest through the sentencing/appeals process. More definitively, the felony case processing project assists the AZSAC in joining with the BJS and the JRSA to accomplish the following initiatives: 1) Exploring the feasibility of utilizing statistical analysis centers to provide criminal history data and analyses to produce national studies of felony case processing; 2) Analyze felony case processing in Arizona; and 3) Continue our identification and reporting of critical data quality issues in Arizona’s criminal history record repository. With these goals in mind, the AZSAC will provide equal emphasis on the methodology of the felony case processing project as on the data results within the report. In addition to the following project report, the BJS and the JRSA are requesting the dataset containing all individuals indicted for a felony in 2006 as a project deliverable. After the initial project meeting in Washington, D.C., both BJS and JRSA project officials provided the state grantees with a codebook of variables to be included in the project dataset. The codebook of variables is modeled after the data elements captured through the State Court Processing Statistics (SCPS) program and the National Judicial Reporting Program (NJRP). After discussions in July among project officials and grantees regarding the lack of available indictment data, all parties agreed that the dataset should consist of all felony offenders (both arrested for a felony and/or later accused of a felony offense) who were subsequently arrested in 2006.

Details: Phoenix: Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, Statistical Analysis Center Report, 2010. 38p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 20, 2011 at: http://www.azcjc.gov/ACJC.Web/Pubs/Home/2010_Felony_Processing_Report.pdf

Year: 2010

Country: United States

URL: http://www.azcjc.gov/ACJC.Web/Pubs/Home/2010_Felony_Processing_Report.pdf

Shelf Number: 122793

Keywords:
Case Management
Case Processing (Arizona)
Criminal History Records
Felony Courts
Felony Offenders