The Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS), a joint project of the U.S. Census Bureau and the University of Michigan, is a nationally integrated data infrastructure project designed to transform research and policy-making on the United States criminal justice system. At the University of Michigan, CJARS collects longitudinal electronic records from criminal justice agencies and harmonizes these records to track a criminal episode across all stages of the system. At the U.S. Census Bureau, harmonized criminal justice records can be linked anonymously at the person-level with extensive social, demographic, and economic information from national survey and administrative records.

Many types of agencies are involved in the administration of the U.S. criminal justice system. Police agencies record crime reports and suspect arrests. Sheriff’s offices record suspect bookings and periods of confinement before and during court proceedings. Courts record judicial proceedings from initial hearings through case dispositions. Prosecutor and defense attorney offices record other aspects of case processing. State departments of corrections record periods of incarceration. And community supervision agencies records periods of probation and parole. In the federal system, the process is similar but with roles played by federal agencies like the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Of these justice processes, CJARS captures records of criminal cases such as those of arrests and bookings, criminal court case filings, and terms of probation, prison, and parole. In general, a prerequisite for inclusion in the database is the existence of personally identifiable information (PII), which makes de-identified and aggregated criminal justice records out of scope. Crime reports are difficult to link to criminal cases and so are generally considered out of scope. Many of the agencies above also conduct activities that are considered out of scope for the project, including evictions, civil court cases, traffic cases that do not rise to the level of a misdemeanor, and juvenile records except those of cases transferred to adult court.

The Justice Outcomes Explorer (JOE) is a Census Bureau experimental data product that measures the economic and health outcomes of people who have been involved with the criminal justice system. 

Criminal justice involvement can include criminal charges, prison releases, and probation and parole sentences. Outcomes measured include employment, earnings, government program participation, and mortality. 

JOE is a collaboration between the U.S. Census Bureau and the University of Michigan that uses Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS) data to better understand how people involved in the justice system reintegrate into society.  

Data users can learn more about the JOE data or interact directly with the data using the data visualization tool  hosted by the University of Michigan. 

A major contribution of CJARS is the creation of a broadly accessible repository that will permanently enhance research infrastructure in the United States. Data are collected, cleaned, and harmonized at the University of Michigan and then integrated into U.S. Census Bureau data systems and made anonymous and available through the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC) network. Qualified researchers can use the standard Census Bureau FSRDC proposal process to request use of the restricted-access CJARS data. 

Distribution through the FSRDCs provides an ideal outlet. The FSRDC network is broadly available to researchers and provides excellent scientific computing resources, while maintaining the highest levels of information security and confidentiality protection. Researchers working in the FSRDCs have no access to sensitive PII and can only request release of aggregate statistical material. The FSRDCs allow qualified researchers on approved projects to link CJARS records anonymously at the person-level to an abundance of socioeconomic survey and administrative data held by the Census Bureau.

For more information on the FSRDC system and other available data, please visit: https://www.census.gov/fsrdc.