Today, the State’s Attorney’s Office for Montgomery County unveiled a “data dashboard,” a publicly available resource designed to provide the community with access to information about case referrals, outcomes, and performance indicators. The Montgomery County Prosecutorial Dashboard was created by the nonprofit agency, Prosecutorial Performance Indicators. The Office of the State’s Attorney states that they are pleased to be able to provide a clearer view into the work of our office and how the criminal justice system operates in our community. This is the result of a two-year grant funded study commissioned by State’s Attorney John McCarthy. It is the first of its kind in the state of Maryland.
As part of this project, we received the Final Report on Racial Justice in Prosecution in Montgomery County from Brian Johnson, PhD, a professor of Criminology at the University of Maryland in collaboration with Towson University and George Washington University. It is published within the dashboard under the heading “Data Stories.” “Data and transparency lead to greater access to justice. This is a starting place, and we will now be able to monitor trends over time to understand what’s working and where there are opportunities for improvement,” said State’s Attorney John McCarthy. A link to the dashboard is now available via the State’s Attorney’s Office website and it will be updated regularly. “We thank State’s Attorney John McCarthy for his leadership and willingness to commit to building a data culture within his office and promoting transparency in prosecution,” said Melba Pearson, Esq., Co-Manager of the PPIs and Director of Prosecution Projects, Florida International University
The Montgomery County dashboard is the result of a collaborative effort between the Prosecutorial Performing Indicators (PPI), the University of Maryland, Bowie State University, Florida International University, Loyola University Chicago, Microsoft Justice Reform Initiative and funding support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies.