CS/HB 7071 - Criminal Justice Data Transparency

• Creates uniform criminal justice data collection requirements beginning January 1, 2019, requiring clerks of court, state attorneys, public defenders, county detention facilities, and the Department of Corrections to collect and transmit specific data weekly to the Department of Law Enforcement

• Establishes an Internet-based public database with machine-readable, searchable criminal justice data accessible by data element, county, judicial circuit, and unique identifier at no cost to users

• Requires digitized sentencing scoresheets with individual data cells for each field; scoresheets must be electronically transmitted to the Department of Corrections weekly

• Imposes sanctions on noncompliant entities including ineligibility for state funding for 5 years, with exceptions for state attorneys and public defenders

• Establishes a pilot project in the Sixth Judicial Circuit allowing criminal justice agencies to partner with nonprofit organizations to embed a data fellow for data validation and quality assurance; appropriates $665,884 recurring and $1,084,116 nonrecurring for fiscal year 2018-2019