Report Card on the Criminal Justice System in Lane County, Oregon

1. Report Cardon the Criminal Justice System in Lane County, Oregon Statewide LPSCC Conference October 24, 2006 Gretchen Pierce, Chair PSCC Public Information Task Force

2. Public Information Task Force Charge – PSCC Guiding Principle: We will assist community members to understand and accept their responsibility to contribute to and maintain a safe and just society. • Work on the Report Card began in March of 2005 to provide an objective report to the public about community safety.

3. PITF - Agencies at the Table • Members: • Business Woman, Past Chair of PSCC • Eugene Police Commission Chair • Retired Lane County Sheriff’s Office Corrections Manager • Current LCSO Corrections Manager • District Attorney • Lane Co. Sheriff’s Office Management Analyst • Department of Youth Services Director • Lane County Public Information Officer • DYS Researcher & Analyst • EPD Analyst • Staff – Lane Council of Governments: • Principal Planner • Data Specialist,

4. PITF - Process • First meeting – March 2005. • Met over 40 hours over the next 17 months. • Looked at Report Card samples from other disciplines. • Presentations from EPD, SPD, Lane County on most recent surveys on public safety – what did community say they care about? • Spent a year collecting, analyzing data and measurements about the adult and juvenile corrections system and safety in Lane County. • Started with indicators from PSCC reports on Failures to Appear, Decision Point Population Analysis of the criminal justice system, early work on benchmarks. • Settled on data which represents key issues, is updated annually, and has comparable state and national data available.

5. Report Card Grading System • Developed a grading system which uses an unbiased, consistent mathematical formula based on the data. • Grades are calculated based on Lane County’s trend and its current rate over the last seven years of available data compared to the trend and current rate of other geographic areas with comparable data.

6. Report Card Grading System • The grades are: A Trend and current rate substantially better than comparison geographic areas B Trend and current rate better than comparison geographic areas C Trend and current rate roughly equal to comparison geographic areas D Trend and current rate worse than comparison geographic areas F Trend and current rates substantially worse than comparison geographic areas • A plus (+) is added to the grade if the trend and current rate have improved over the last three years of available data compared to the last seven years. A minus (-) is added to the grade if the trend and current rate have worsened over the last three years of available data compared to the last seven years. Grades of "F" are not eligible for either a plus or a minus. • The trend for each category is also noted as Getting Better, Getting Worse, or Stable.

7. Report Card Design • Two final products: • Report Card Data Book • 50 page document • Includes all data utilized in calculating the grades • Grades are provided for each chart • Report Card • 8 page document • Summary analysis • Grades and trends for each category • Selected charts to illustrate • Adult and Juvenile Report Cards are presented in an equivalent manner – both are “covers” of the document because of unique formatting

9. Crime & Safety Grade: B- Trend: Getting Better

10. Crime & Safety Grade: B- Trend: Getting Better

11. Resources & CapacityGrade: F Trend: Getting Worse

12. Efficient & Effective Use of Resources Grade: A Trend: Getting Better

13. Justice & AccountabilityGrade: F Trend: Stable

15. Crime & Safety Grade: D+ Trend: Getting Better

16. Resources & Capacity Grade: F Trend: Getting Worse

17. Efficient & Effective Use of ResourcesGrade: C+ Trend: Getting Better

18. Justice & AccountabilityGrade: F Trend: Getting Worse

19. Communications Plan • Met with police chiefs and other criminal justice system agency directors to present the Report Card, encourage them to communicate with their staffs about it. • Presented Report Card to Board of County Commissioners. • Held a news conference. • PITF members are making presentations to groups on request. • Elected officials or other PSCC members are presenting the report card to their city councils.

20. Communications Plan – Results • News conference netted a newspaper article along with television and radio coverage. • The Register-Guard Reporter Bill Bishop has written 3 excellent in-depth articles tracking Report Card development and final product • Met with Editorial Board of The Register-Guard • Lead editorial 8/27/06: “Curiously mixed grades – Council assesses county’s public safety system” • Special series: “Stretched To The Limit” with 8 separate editorials so far using data from Report Card and even some of the charts • Distributed over 6,000 copies so far through meetings and mailings.

21. Next Steps • Continue to distribute Report Card. • PITF met earlier this month to look at updated data and grades • Next meeting in February to work on 2007 Report Card • Annual updates planned • 2006 Report Card and Report Card Data Book are posted at www.LCOG.org