NCJ Number
202313
Date Published
July 2003
Length
61 pages
Annotation
This report presents a discipline-specific focus for integrating justice information sharing, which in turn can be used to identify broader information technology (IT) architectural and infrastructure issues that must be addressed by State chief information officers (CIO's).
Abstract
The integration of justice information systems involves sharing among criminal justice agencies critical data, documents, images, and key transactions at key decision points of case processing. Nearly every State is planning or implementing integrated justice information systems. This movement has been facilitated by Federal legislation in 1998 that includes the Crime Identification Technology Act (CITA), which authorized $250 million per year for each of the next 5 years for State grants to promote the integration of justice system information and identification technology. The scope of information-systems integration addressed in this report includes local justice entities sharing information with other local entities, as well as with State and Federal entities; and State entities sharing information with other entities within their State, with other States, with local entities, and with Federal entities. The only exclusion in the integration covered in this report is information shared exclusively between Federal entities. In addition to explaining the discipline-specific business functions for integrated justice information systems and exploring the architectural implications for State CIO's, this report defines fundamental concepts, principles, functions, and operational requirements for integrated justice information sharing; presents a scenario of integrated justice information sharing; and describes a general methodology for States to use in validating their IT architecture. In addition, the report presents an action plan for the validation, implementation, and expansion of the concepts presented to disciplines other than the justice discipline. Examples of operational requirements for integrated justice information systems from representative jurisdictions include Maricopa County, AZ, and the States of Alaska, Michigan, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. 8 Internet reference sites and a listing of 8 reports