Groundbreaking Criminal Justice Data Tool Launches for Monroe County District Attorney’s Office
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (August 30, 2023) – The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, leaders from the community, and Rochester-based nonprofit organization Measures for Justice (MFJ) announced today that a new criminal justice data tool, Commons, has launched in Monroe County. The groundbreaking data platform makes accurate, local criminal justice data available to the public and tracks a policy goal set by the Monroe District Attorney’s Office and community leaders.
“The criminal justice system must be transparent and accountable to the community it serves,” says Irshad Altheimer, Rochester Institute of Technology, member of the Monroe County community advisory board developing the Commons dashboards. “These data portals will put criminal justice data in the hands of the people to help reshape how the system serves us.”
Commons is a free and public criminal justice data dashboard that allows users to:
- track monthly data on how cases flow through the District Attorney’s Office;
- follow progress toward criminal justice goals set by community representatives and the District Attorney’s Office;
- observe trends across monthly and yearly measures;
- break down data by demographics like race and ethnicity, sex, age, etc.; and
- share findings directly with policymakers and media.
“I am proud to partner with Measures for Justice to make our data available and open to the public,” says Sandra Doorley, Monroe County District Attorney. “Presenting Commons to the community is an important step toward promoting data transparency. The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office Commons dashboard collects our internal criminal justice data and displays it in a user-friendly method for anyone to review. This comprehensive overview of our case tracking is one of the techniques we can use to give the public a synopsis of our often complex criminal justice data.”
MFJ has been working closely with a Community Advisory Board (CAB) to represent the voice of Monroe County’s community members. The CAB acts as an advisory body for the Commons project and participates in discussions with the District Attorney’s Office to help set data-driven goals in the context of Monroe County’s history of racial, economic and social inequity.
“The CAB is committed to making the Commons project sustainable by working closely with the Monroe D.A.’s office,” says Rashid Muhammad, Volunteer Legal Services of Monroe County, member of the Monroe County CAB. “We are concerned citizens and everyday leaders who are committed to ensuring that the dashboards are accurate, relevant and customized to meet the needs of our county.”
Monroe County is part of a larger network of counties and cities across the country that are planning to implement Commons as a way to bring data transparency, accessibility and accountability to the local criminal justice system. Yolo County, CA, was the first to launch its public data tool in 2021. East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, Jackson County, KS, and West Sacramento, CA, also plan to launch their own Commons tools.
“Commons puts data directly into the hands of the leaders who can make change, bringing transparency and accountability to the criminal justice system,” said Amy Bach, CEO and founder of Measures for Justice. “This is an opportunity to build trust and accountability for all communities.”
Measures for Justice is a national, non-profit organization based in Rochester, NY, with a mission to change the future of criminal justice by developing tools that help communities and the institutions that serve them reshape how the system works.
About Measures for Justice
Measures for Justice is leading a movement to change the future of criminal justice by developing tools that help communities and the institutions that serve them reshape how the system works. Since 2011, Measures for Justice has worked with communities, courts, prosecutors and police to shine a light on what criminal justice looks like nationwide; collaborated to standardize and improve criminal justice data nationwide; and created tools, provided services, and led research to help create a criminal justice system that is fully transparent, accessible and accountable.
