Introduction
The Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJR) requires the establishment of data collection and reporting standards for all Massachusetts criminal justice agencies, including making such data available in an anonymized manner to the public through an Application Programming Interface (API). Data collection and reporting standards for criminal justice agencies were established by 501 CMR 18. In compliance with these standards, criminal justice agencies are required to report the applicable criminal justice data to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) to be analyzed and published in Cross-Tracking dashboards.
There are many benefits to providing anonymized data to the public. This API Query Builder further promotes the transparency of the criminal justice system, informs the public, policy makers and researchers about the criminal justice system, allows for monitoring and accountability of the system, and furthers the ability to identify trends and issues that will inform the development of effective public policy. Using this builder allows users to customize data extracts that span the Cross-Tracking dashboards on custodial populations, recidivism, charges and convictions, and evidence-based program enrollments. Detailed information on the fields available in the tool appears in the FAQs.
API Query Builder Content
Cohort - In the current version of the Query Builder there are two views of the offender population. The Custodial Cohort provides a snapshot view of offenders at a point in time and the recidivism cohort provides a view of sentenced offenders released to the community over one, two and three year periods.
Dimension - The following data elements are available in the Custodial Cohort:
- Snapshot Date (mandatory)
- Agency
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Assigned Sex
- Gender Identity
- Offender Status
- Age Group
- Governing Offense Type
- Governing Offense Subtype
- Governing Offense Severity
- Leading Charge Type
- Leading Charge Subtype
- Leading Charge Severity
*Please note: Governing Offense Type, Governing Offense Subtype, Governing Offense Severity are only available when the Offender Status dimension is selected and the Offender Status Filter = "Sentenced". Leading Charge Type, Leading Charge Subtype, Leading Charge Severity are only available when the Offender Status dimension is selected and the Offender Status Filter = "Pretrial".
The following data elements are available in the Recidivism Cohort:
- Year of Release (mandatory)
- Agency
- Model
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Assigned Sex
- Gender Identity
- Age Group
- Release Type
- Recidivism Model
Metrics - Users have the option to include metrics about the offenders in the data extract. Metrics are calculated for the group of offenders selected and include program enrollment counts for various program types and average and median incarceration periods.
The recidivism cohort provides additional metrics: rearraignment, reconviction, and reincarceration statistics for 1, 2 and 3 year periods.
Filters - Filters will limit the data extracted to meet the user's needs. Filters are only available for dimensions selected in the previous step.
Preview Results - After pressing "Preview Results" a table of the requested data will be presented to the user. The total number of rows will be indicated on the bottom of the screen. Cells with less than 5 results will display with the "<5" designation.
Download Results - On the last step, click this button to download a CSV file with the results of your query.
Clear Form - This button resets the workflow so another request can be constructed.
API Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - This panel displays a unique URL to the API based upon the user’s selections. The user can use this URL to obtain results directly from the Cross-Tracking API endpoint without using the API Query Builder and will return the data extraction in a JSON format. To accomplish this, users select the Copy button within the API URL display to copy this link to the clipboard of the user’s local system.
For more information about the API Query Builder, you can access the FAQs here.