Medical College of Wisconsin Institute for Health and Equity contributes to transparency, accountability, data-driven reform
Milwaukee, September 29, 2020 – The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office (MCDAO) released today a publicly available dashboard containing data on key indicators and decision points on how the justice system functions from referral to sentencing. This includes the number of referrals to MCDAO, length of time to first contact with victims, case dismissals prior to filing, charges issued, case disposition and sentencing. In addition, there are specific measures related to the distribution of cases by demographic characteristics such as gender and race/ethnicity.
“The creation and public release of this dashboard is a continuation of the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office commitment to provide the people we serve with information that measures how we are performing the critical mission of protecting the community in a way that respects and protects the rights and dignity of victims and offenders alike,” said Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm.
The website and visualizations are part of a larger project on Prosecutorial Performance Indicators, an office management, performance measurement and transparency and accountability tool that helps prosecutors’ offices measure their performance toward greater capacity and efficiency, community safety and well-being, and fairness and justice.
Branden DuPont, data analyst in the Institute for Health and Equity at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) led the development of the dashboard, along with Don Stemen, associate professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Loyola University of Chicago. This project is in collaboration with Loyola, Florida International University and MCW and is funded through the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge.
The data on the site will expand in the coming months based on identified next steps and external feedback. It will be updated monthly.
“This is an ongoing commitment,” Chisholm said. “The data reflected here is just the first of many data points that we intend to release to allow the public to see how we measure the work we do in a values-based organization.”
Members of the public can fill out this form to provide feedback, request additional data or analysis or ask questions about the site.
The dashboard is the first of its kind in Wisconsin and joins a handful of other prosecutor offices around the country similarly committed to transparency, accountability and data-driven reform.
Chisholm will give a formal presentation on the dashboard at an upcoming Milwaukee Community Justice Council Community Meeting of the Whole.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney Dashboard is available at: https://data.mkedao.com/
About the Medical College of Wisconsin
With a history dating back to 1893, The Medical College of Wisconsin is dedicated to leadership and excellence in education, patient care, research and community engagement. More than 1,400 students are enrolled in MCW’s medical school and graduate school programs in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Central Wisconsin in. MCW’s School of Pharmacy opened in 2017. A major national research center, MCW is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In the last ten years, faculty received more than $1.5 billion in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes. This total includes highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annually, MCW faculty direct or collaborate on more than 3,100 research studies, including clinical trials. Additionally, more than 1,600 physicians provide care in virtually every specialty of medicine for more than 2.8 million patients annually.
About Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago, a private university founded in 1870 as St. Ignatius College, is one of the nation’s largest Jesuit, Catholic Universities and the only one located in Chicago. Recognizing Loyola’s excellence in education, U.S. News and World Report has ranked Loyola consistently among the top “national universities” in its annual publications. Loyola is among a select group of universities recognized for community service and engagement by prestigious national organizations like the Carnegie Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service.
About Florida International University
Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity and recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers 196 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. This project is housed in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Center for the Administration of Justice, which are part of the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs.
About the Safety and Justice Challenge
The Safety and Justice Challenge is an initiative of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to reduce mass incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails. As part of the initiative, a network of competitively selected local jurisdictions are developing and modeling effective ways to reduce the misuse of jail.