In the pursuit of accountability in the criminal legal system in the age of mass incarceration, policymakers, community members, and advocates have begun to turn their attention to prosecutors and the courts as legal actors that directly affect the number of people in prisons and jails and racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Despite courts’ massive influence, however, we know little about court processes.
From August 2022 to January 2023, 30 local organizations used data and technology to inform and improve policies and practices to advance racial equity and reform in the criminal legal system as part of the Catalyst Grant Program. Many of these grantees focused on increasing transparency in prosecutorial processes, judicial decisions, and court operations. In addition to the inherent value of that transparency, many of these efforts have led to improved policies and practices in the criminal court process.
Leveraging Technology to Improve Court Data Collection and Maintenance
Courts, prosecutors’ offices, and defense attorneys’ offices typically lack the technological infrastructure to support data storage and sharing. Courts and prosecutors’ offices that have such technology have used it to analyze data for trends in case processing, automate case tracking, and share up-to-date information with people going through court about their appearance dates. Technology and data can also be used to identify opportunities to change practices and can make operations more efficient and transparent. For example, in New York City, the Legal Aid Society, which handles about 200,000 legal matters a year, wanted to better capture and track its clients’ demographics to identify policing and prosecution trends across the diverse populations it serves. In its Catalyst Grant Program project, it designed, tested, and deployed a system using optical character recognition software and scanning equipment to collect data on clients and cases faster and more accurately. This created an unprecedented opportunity for the Legal Aid Society to analyze policing and prosecution trends based on reliable data and will be a step toward increased transparency and accountability in the prosecution process.
Court Watch Programs
In addition to collecting and sharing administrative data, organizations can learn more about the court process by gathering qualitative data through interviews, focus groups, and court watch programs. In Madison, Wisconsin, the Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development combined both approaches in its Catalyst Grant Program project. Nehemiah digitized some of its Court Observer Program using Microsoft Forms and produced data visualizations with Microsoft PowerBI, providing a fuller picture of the interactions between criminal legal system actors and defendants. It also conducted one-on-one interviews and small focus groups with people who participate in its reentry services and their families to better understand the court system's impact on the community. This work exposed issues with existing approaches, such as limits placed on individuals in custody during virtual court appearances; barriers, such as legal jargon, that made it difficult for individuals facing charges and victims of crime to understand court processes; and a lack of access to mental health services. These activities and insights enabled Nehemiah to collect suggestions from community members on system improvements and informed advocacy efforts.
Understanding and Communicating Patterns in Criminal Court Processes by Analyzing Administrative Data Records
Several Catalyst grantees have collected and analyzed court and prosecution data to reveal trends in court processes with the goal of improving outcomes for community members.
Open Austin, in partnership with Fair Defense, has analyzed criminal court data from counties across Texas and examined the performance of court-appointed lawyers. The goal of the project is to help move counties away from the independent-contractor model of indigent defense representation and toward a more robust institutional defense system.
The Kheprw Institute partnered with Indiana University’s Polis Center to study charging decisions for arrested people in Indianapolis whose cases are dismissed before disposition to identify whether these cases show disparities in charging related to race, ethnicity, or sex. Through this work, they have been able to establish a working relationship with the prosecutor’s office and develop tools to gather jail booking data on an ongoing basis to inform continuing oversight and accountability efforts.
One Love Global in Lansing, Michigan, collected prosecution data from the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office and qualitative data from community members to update the Lansing Racial Equity Scorecard, a results-based accountability tool. The scorecard is used to educate community members, track progress toward racial equity in key areas, hold institutions accountable, and provide data that can be leveraged to support policy that promotes racial justice and healing.
The Felony Murder Elimination Project, in partnership with the UCLA Center for the Study of Women, conducted a study on the prosecution of people who have been convicted to life without parole in California. They collected data on charging, disposition, and sentencing to understand more about who is sentenced to life without parole. The data had not been previously analyzed for this specific sentenced population, and the staff have used the findings to educate the public on the realities of such prosecutions in Southern California and motivate prosecutors to address the sentencing disparities their offices have perpetuated. They also made the data usable for public defenders’ offices to assist in litigation.
Through the Catalyst Grant Program, these grantees have made strides in improving the field’s understanding of court processes and their effects on their communities. They are now bringing that knowledge into their communities and arming them with the evidence they need to advocate for reforms.
The Catalyst Grant Program is a collaboration between the Urban Institute and the Microsoft Justice Reform Initiative to help nonprofit organizations use data and technology to advance racial equity and reform in the criminal legal system. Visit the Catalyst Grant Program Insights page for more resources and stories about the grantees.
