A new set of online data dashboards about criminal prosecutions went live today, providing citizens with the opportunity to better understand and analyze the B.C. justice system's operations.

The data dashboards align with the B.C. government's action plan for justice reform. The new criminal justice data dashboards - which expand on the courts and corrections dashboards launched earlier this year - offer B.C. criminal prosecution statistics over the past eight years.

Taking raw data and transforming it into a visually friendly format by plotting it onto interactive maps of B.C. helps to create a more common understanding of the justice system's day-to-day operations. Users are also able to query the data and generate their results into bar graphs.

This project continues the government of B.C.'s commitment to modernize the justice system. The data dashboards help to outline the system's strengths and challenges and allow for long-term performance analyses. This data will help in the development of solutions that are more evidence-based, helping the justice system become more timely, transparent and balanced.

Quotes:

Minister of Justice and Attorney General Shirley Bond -

"These online data dashboards are part of our government's action plan to develop evidence-based approaches for our justice system that will ultimately improve outcomes for British Columbians."

"By encouraging the public and interested stakeholders to access open justice data, we are opening the door to citizen-led solutions and helping to create a broader understanding of the functions of B.C.'s justice system as it undergoes systemic reform."

Quick Facts:

• The criminal justice data dashboards include eight fiscal years of data (April 2003 to March 2012).
• The set of criminal justice data dashboards includes:
• A charge assessment dashboard that measures:

• The number of Reports to Crown Counsel (RCC) received (an RCC is a document that makes recommendations on charges).

• The number of accused.

• A dashboard that shows the number of prosecutions by each Crown counsel office location.
• The raw criminal justice data is also available on the B.C. government's DataBC site, so that members of the public can create their own analyses or visualizations.

Learn More:

Ministry of Justice data dashboards:

Criminal justice:

https://justicebcdashboard.bimeapp.com/players/dashboard/chargeassessment

https://justicebcdashboard.bimeapp.com/players/dashboard/concludedpersons

The first part of the B.C. government's two-part white paper on justice reform: http://www.justicebc.ca/shared/pdfs/WhitePaperOne.pdf

Information about the criminal justice and justice reform: www.justicebc.ca

Information about the B.C. government's open data initiative: http://www.data.gov.bc.ca/

Contact:

Lauren Mulholland
Communications
Ministry of Justice
250 387-4961 or 250 889-3922 (cell)