Pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution No. 134, H.D. 1, Regular Session of 2017, the chief justice convened the Criminal Pretrial Task Force. Recommendation No. 24 of the Task Force’s Report was to create a “centralized statewide criminal pretrial justice data reporting and collection system.” Act 179 (2019) / Hawai’i Revised Statutes Chapter 614 created the Criminal Justice Research Institute (CJRI), and tasked CJRI with the development of this pretrial database and reporting system to track performance metrics within Hawai’i’s criminal pretrial system.
The CJRI staff interviewed and researched other approaches in jurisdictions who have conducted similar work to link disparate data sources in a centralized location, as well as assessed the state’s data landscape, agency operations and policies, and research goals for creating a pretrial database and reporting system. Based on their review, they recommended to the CJRI board and the board approved the creation of a technology-based solution that would extract, merge, and link data from all three agencies into one centralized data warehouse. This would create a centralized database and create the capacity for CJRI to monitor the state’s pretrial system, provide a foundation for dashboards, and develop recommendations for improvement. This approach would be the best solution in terms of cost, staff workloads across agencies, and timeliness of data analysis and reporting. In collaboration with the Judiciary, Department of Public Safety, and the Department of the Attorney General’s Criminal History Data Center, CJRI has been engaged in the scoping and planning of a centralized technology platform to determine the feasibility of sharing and merging data across current state databases which house pretrial data. CJRI was provided funding during the 2022 Regular Session of the Hawai’i State Legislature to determine the feasibility of extracting and linking criminal pretrial justice data across criminal justice agencies in the state. In addition to determining feasibility, this work has identified cost estimates to create and maintain what would become the pretrial database and reporting system. CJRI is prioritizing the linkage of data across current state databases to facilitate criminal pretrial performance metrics in accordance with HRS § 614-3, under the guidance of CJRI’s Board of Directors.
H.B. 68 Signed into Law as Act 147
House Bill 68, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, C.D. 1 (2023) was signed into law as Act 147 by Governor Josh Green on June 29, 2023, and went into effect on July 1, 2023. This act appropriates funds for the creation of a centralized statewide criminal pretrial justice data reporting and collection system, pursuant to state law (HRS § 614). This system will collect disconnected data sources across criminal justice agencies in the state and provide CJRI with the technological and research capacity to monitor the effectiveness of the criminal pretrial system. The system will extract, merge, and link pretrial data across criminal justice agencies in the state, providing CJRI with the ability to produce more comprehensive and timely metrics, as well as analyze more research questions, especially those critical to policymakers. Furthermore, the database will address many of the barriers identified in the HCR 134 task force report that currently limit CJRI’s ability to conduct research on the state’s criminal pretrial system. This system will also create a platform for more accessible and digestible reporting, such as building out dashboards on key metrics and improving the efficiency of data collection.
CJRI thanks the Judiciary, Department of Public Safety, and the Hawai`i Criminal Justice Data Center, Department of the Attorney General, for their support of this bill during the legislative session. Data from these agencies will be merged and linked in the database to produce pretrial metrics, and CJRI is grateful for their collaboration during the project’s feasibility planning and for their continued partnership on this project.
The pretrial database and reporting system will provide information to help policymakers understand the effectiveness of pretrial policies and practices. Additionally, creating this system will provide CJRI with the capacity to report out on data important to the Hawai`i Correctional System Oversight Commission. CJRI continues to collaborate with their office to work towards fulfilling goals established in Act 179 (2019) to improve the criminal justice system in the state.
This work builds off the criminal pretrial reform efforts initiated by Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald, and will work towards developing better data to improve the criminal justice system. The Institute thanks Chief Justice Recktenwald for his support.
This project was recommended by CJRI to fulfill the intent behind HRS § 614, and H.B. 68 was introduced by Representative Scot Z. Matayoshi on behalf of the Institute. Rep. Matayoshi sits on CJRI’s board of directors as the designee of the Speaker of the House. CJRI values the support of Rep. Matayoshi and their board members in carrying out this important work.
To view Act 147: https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2023/bills/GM1250_.PDF
Legislative Overview – Pretrial Database and Reporting System Appropriation
In the 2023 legislative session, CJRI recommended an appropriation request be made to fund the creation of the pretrial database and reporting system. This appropriation would cover the costs to create a system that extracts data across the three statewide data sources, then links and merges data into one data warehouse. With a centralized data source for pretrial data, pretrial metrics will be more timely and more comprehensive, meeting the goals of Act 179. This legislative overview provides a synopsis of the appropriation request for the proposed pretrial database and reporting system.
To view H.B. 68: https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=68&year=2023
Pretrial Process Data Map
This data map was developed to help better understand the intricacies of linking data from across different agencies and decision points in the pretrial phase in order to produce pretrial performance metrics.
Pretrial Definitions
This list of pretrial definitions was developed to assist and guide CJRI in the development of the pretrial database and reporting system by defining important terms and metrics related to the analysis and reporting of pretrial performance metrics.
Pretrial Data Sources and Metrics Overview
The pretrial database and reporting system will require four primary data sources from three agencies, and most metrics will require the extraction and linking of data from more than one database. This table demonstrates the data sources required to calculate primary operations and outcome metrics.