The Justice Dashboard is a tool for understanding trends in how people interact with the criminal justice system and tracking our progress toward reducing racial disparities in the system. It provides information about adults who were convicted of a crime and sentenced to county jail or community supervision and is broken down by race/ethnicity, gender, age, and offense type.
The Justice Dashboard is part of a larger movement within the City and County of San Francisco to use data, technology, and research as tools to reduce incarceration and racial disparities in our criminal justice system. Tools like Justice Dashboard help us create safer communities and advance the national dialogue on best practices for local justice systems.
This data sharing and visualization project was developed by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office through the San Francisco Sentencing Commission in collaboration with the Sheriff’s Department and the California Policy Lab. The Justice Dashboard was created, in part, with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as a part of the Safety and Justice Challenge, which seeks to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails.
The Justice Dashboard compares outcomes for individuals over the age of 18 convicted of a felony or misdemeanor in calendar years 2013 through 2018 and sentenced to county jail or local supervision in San Francisco. Subsequent contact is tracked three years after release from jail or the date of conviction, whichever occurs later, at three distinct criminal justice contact points:
New Arrest: A new arrest is defined as misdemeanor and felony arrests for new criminal activity in San Francisco.
New Arraignment: A new arraignment is defined as a new misdemeanor or felony charge filed by the SFDA or a motion to revoke supervision (MTR) filed for new criminal activity by the SFDA or the Adult Probation Department.
New Conviction: A new conviction is defined as a conviction with a sentence to local supervision, county jail, or state prison for new criminal activity in San Francisco. Of note, a person may experience a new arraignment, but not a new conviction if they are successfully diverted from the criminal justice system through participation in pretrial diversion or Collaborative Courts..
Conviction Cohort: The year that the person entered the cohort: either the date of conviction or the date of release from San Francisco County Jail, whichever occurred later.
Index Case: The case associated with the conviction that placed the person in the Conviction Cohort.
Index Offense: The index offense is the most serious charge filed on the index case.
Complete navigation guidance and definitions for the Justice Dashboard can be found here.
