Despite the large and growing size of the Latino population in the United States, we know relatively little about their experiences in local criminal justice systems. This is due in large part to inadequate data collection and tracking, according to a report commissioned by MacArthur as part of the Safety and Justice Challenge. Local criminal justice systems have different ways of collecting and storing data on Latino and Hispanic people who are involved in the justice system, inhibiting system-wide understanding of racial and ethnic disparities.
To address this issue, the report authors recommend moving towards standardized collection of race and ethnicity data across all criminal justice agencies to allow for better data sharing and data translation between systems. The authors also encourage regular examination of disparities in outcomes by race, ethnicity, and by age group to better understand how the justice system is impacting communities.
