OLYMPIA – Today, November 7, 2023, the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners signed a resolution to join the Justice Counts Initiative. This is a nationwide initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’ Bureau of Justice Assistance and co-led by a coalition of 22 organizations representing a broad range of criminal justice expertise.

By joining the Justice Counts Initiative, the county gains access to free technical assistance from the initiative’s team. The metrics and digital infrastructure are designed to be feasible and useful for law and justice practitioners and decision-makers alike. With the support of the Board of County Commissioners and our law and justice stakeholders, Justice Counts efforts in Thurston County will work toward the goal of accurate, accessible, and actionable law and justice data. 

This will be accomplished by:

• Creating a data governance structure for our law and justice agencies, using an equity lens.
• Implementing consensus-driven metrics for county agencies including the jail, courts, Pretrial Services, Sheriff’s Office, Public Defense, and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. 
• Creating and implementing a digital infrastructure to consolidate, share, and display data in one place, with automated visualizations and dashboards to easily see and understand big picture trends. 

“One of our goals for the county’s law and justice system is to get our scattered data sources collected and organized to a point where we can use it to better inform our policy decisions on justice reform,” said County Commissioner, Tye Menser. “By joining Justice Counts, we are able to bring in a national team of experts to support our team in helping make this goal a reality.”

“For several years our law and justice partners have had the goal of improving our data capabilities,” said Leah Landon, Thurston County Criminal Justice Regional Program Manager. “The technical assistance from Justice Counts will allow us better understand how we can improve our current data collection to help us make data-driven decisions regarding law and justice programs, better supporting our community.” 

To learn more about Justice Counts, visit the website or contact justicecounts@csg.org.

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