Report 2011-129 Recommendation 9 Responses
Report 2011-129: Juvenile Justice Realignment: Limited Information Prevents a Meaningful Assessment of Realignment's Effectiveness (Release Date: September 2012)
Recommendation #9 To: Justice, Department of
To ensure that its criminal history system contains complete and accurate data related to juvenile offenders, Justice should implement a procedure similar to the one it employs for the JCPSS to verify the accuracy of information the counties submit.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2014
The Hawkins Data Center (HDC) provided juvenile cycle data and the first data sampling was completed in May 2014. DOJ sampled 50 cycles and identified four cycles, or 8% that were updated with incorrect disposition codes. In each case, the juvenile record cycles were updated with the same incorrect adult disposition code instead of the appropriate corresponding juvenile disposition code. All of the cycles sampled were corrected to reflect the appropriate juvenile disposition codes. Staff responsible were made aware of the errors, reminded to use juvenile disposition codes on juvenile cycles, and provided with the list of new juvenile disposition codes in a staff meeting. DOJ will produce another sampling of 50 juvenile cycles in November 2014.
To ensure that DOJ's criminal history system contains complete and accurate data for juvenile offenders, the HDC provided statistics from the Department's ACHS showing agencies with a decline in juvenile disposition submissions for an eight month period.
Using these statistics, the CJSC identified a group of Juvenile Courts which showed declined submissions and contacted them via telephone/email to determine the reason for the decline. All of the Juvenile Courts contacted either did not know why there was a decrease in submissions or suggested that the decline is likely a result of new juvenile filings having decreased and/or their courts being under staffed.
- Completion Date: May 2014
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented
The Department of Justice provided policies and procedures which indicate that it will semi-annually sample data from the JCPSS and correct any identified errors.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2013
Starting in January 2014, on a semi-annual basis, the DOJ will pull 50 juvenile cycles from records in the Automated Criminal History System (ACHS) for supervisory review against the source documents from submitting agencies. Any discrepancies identified between the source document and the ACHS entry will be reconciled to ensure the ACHS data is accurate.
Additionally, the DOJ will pull data from ACHS by county for records containing juvenile dates of birth to determine the number of juvenile submissions on a semi-annual basis. For agencies showing a decline in the number of submissions, DOJ will contact those agencies to identify the cause of the decline and to provide training as needed to ensure accurate submission of juvenile data.
- Estimated Completion Date: January 2014
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented
1-Year Agency Response
DOJ is the statutorily mandated repository of criminal history information submitted by criminal justice agencies and always strives to maintain accurate and timely criminal history information. DOJ staff have and will continue to contact agencies for clarification if the submitted information cannot be reasonably updated to the criminal history system.
- Completion Date: August 2012
- Response Date: September 2013
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: No Action Taken
Justice did not address whether it plans to implement any procedure to verify the accuracy of information the counties submit.
6-Month Agency Response
DOJ is the statutorily mandated repository of criminal history information submitted by criminal justice agencies and always strives to maintain accurate and timely criminal history information. DOJ staff have and will continue to contact agencies for clarification if the submitted information cannot be reasonably updated to the criminal history system.
- Response Date: March 2013
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: No Action Taken
Justice did not address whether it plans to implement any procedure to verify the accuracy of information the counties submit.
60-Day Agency Response
According to Justice, counties are responsible for submitting accurate criminal history information. Justice indicated that staff contact counties when questions arise and more experienced staff verify the work of newer staff. However, Justice did not address whether it plans to implement any procedure to verify the accuracy of information the counties submit. (See 2013-406, p. 232)
- Response Date: November 2012
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: No Action Taken
All Recommendations in 2011-129
Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.