Pretrial Practices Data Oversight Board Releases Preliminary Report
The Pretrial Practices Data Oversight Board (the Board) today released its preliminary report, meeting its statutorily required July 1 deadline.
The Board, created with the signing of Public Act 101-0652 (the “SAFE-T Act,” or Act) in February 2021, was tasked with developing a strategy to oversee the collection and analysis of data regarding pretrial practices in circuit court systems.
AOIC Director Marcia M. Meis convened the Board in July of 2021, and the inaugural meeting of the group was held in August of 2021. The Board has since met monthly to complete the work defined in the Act.
“Data collection and analysis will be key to the success of pretrial practices in Illinois,” Director Meis said. “This report, thanks to the hard work of everyone on the Board, will help provide the foundation for that success.”
Through the creation of the “SAFE-T Act,” the Board was provided with four distinct charges:
1. Identify existing pretrial data collection processes in local jurisdictions.
2. Define, gather, and maintain records of pretrial data from applicable criminal justice system agencies.
3. Identify resources necessary to systematically collect and report data as defined in the Act.
4. Develop a plan to implement data collection processes sufficient to collect data as defined in the act starting July 1, 2022.
The preliminary report details the work of the Data Subcommittee, a group which identified pretrial data collection practices in local jurisdictions and ultimately produced a number of key findings including the fact that most counties have never systematically performed data analyses to examine their pretrial system or practices.
The preliminary report also details how the AOIC is working with Tyler Technologies Socrata to integrate with local court case management systems, expand existing application programming interfaces where possible, and build new integrations with probation and pretrial departments, as well as their near-term and future data integration goals.