Criminal Justice Reform

Inspiration

Our journey began with a profound inspiration drawn from an impactful initiative: The Three Strikes Project. This legal clinical seminar, spearheaded by dedicated law students, extends a helping hand to individuals serving life sentences for nonviolent crimes under California’s Three Strikes Law. Their mission is clear: to seek justice and advocate for those whose lives have been profoundly affected by this law (Redo.io. resentencing-data-initiative (Version 1.0.0) [Computer software]. https://github.com/redoio/resentencing_data_initiative/). Inspired by this, we felt compelled to delve deeper into the intricate web of data surrounding criminal justice reform. Recognizing the vast challenges faced by legal practitioners in navigating the complex landscape of California's prisons, we identified a pressing need for more efficient and accurate methods of identifying eligible candidates for Prosecutor Initiated Resentencing (PIR). As aspiring Data Scientists and Analysts, our curiosity propelled us to explore data on the population currently incarcerated in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as of December 2023 (Redo.io. cdcr-prison-pop (Version 1.0.0) [Demographics_CDCR.csv]. https://github.com/redoio/prison_pop). It was independently obtained through a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request. This data collection was separate from any work conducted by the Three Strikes Project and Stanford University.

What it does

Our website gives us information on trends in crime in California, specifically focusing on ethnicity, location, reason for sentencing and sentence length in months. We also conducted statistical analysis to come up with impactful findings and presented it.

How we built it

We built out website using Javascript, HTML and CSS. To analyze our data, specifically ethnicity and it's correlation with sentence length in months, we used R Studio to create summary tables, boxplots and conduct one way ANOVA testing. Lastly, we used Tableau to create our bar graphs, time series graphs, and map.

Challenges we ran into

We were unable to get our interactive Tableau graphs onto our website. We also had trouble deciding on what columns to use as we weren't sure what would be the most relevant. However, we overcame this problem ultimately deciding sentence length, ethnicity and reasons for sentencing. Lastly, we had trouble making the website as we were new to HTML and CSS, and have never built a website before.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of building a website, learning how to use Tableau, and applying our statistical knowledge in a real life setting.

What we learned

We learned how to create a website, create interesting graphs, collaborate well as a team, and developed our technical skills.

What's next for Criminal Justice Reform

We want to find out how to integrate Tableau interactive graphs into our website and transform our data to better analyze and come up with accurate conclusions.