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About Us
Several
years ago, representatives from a number of Arkansas's
state criminal justice agencies envisioned a statewide,
seamlessly interfaced criminal justice information system.
They wanted a system where the local law enforcement
agencies, prosecuting and defense attorneys' offices,
municipal and state courts, the various correction facilities,
and other affiliated state agencies would be connected
to each other for information sharing.
In
Arkansas, there are a variety of computer systems at
the city, county and state levels that have been implemented
by individual criminal justice agencies. Unfortunately,
there is not an automated structure in place that allows
information in these computers to be electronically
shared among all those criminal justice agencies. When
a defendant proceeds through the criminal justice system,
information on that individual is re-entered over and
over into multiple databases. Not only is there a great
waste of time in making these duplicate entries, but
it leads to errors and delays.
In
an IJIS, data is captured at the point of origin and
electronically passed on to the next agency that requires
the information. This achieves the most important aspect
of an IJIS: data is instantly available to everyone
else who needs it.
The
stakeholders were brought together to examine the problems
and needs of the existing justice information systems.
That effort led to a more formalized study that was
supported by Governor Mike Huckabee and Supreme Court
Chief Justice Dub Arnold. The Arkansas Legislature's
Act
848 of 1999 and
Act 1272 of 2001 established the
Integrated Justice Information System Coordinating Council
as well as a Local Government Advisory Group. When the
legislation expired in 2003, the Council was
re-established by the Governor's Executive
Order 03-04.
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Local
Government Advisory Group
(appointments in progress ) |
|
John
Stewart, chair
Deputy Director
Administrative Office of the Courts
|
Prosecuting Attorney |
|
Circuit
Clerk
|
Circuit/Chancery Judge |
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Public Defender |
Chief of Police |
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County Judge |
County Sheriff |
|
Circuit Judge |
City Board of Directors |
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IJIS
Technical Committee |
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Jack
Marks
Administrative
Office of the Courts |
Arkansas
Crime Information Center |
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Paul
Brown
Department
of Community Correction |
Roger
Patton
Department
of Correction |
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Sanford Cothren
Department
of Information Services |
Bill
Steele
DHS
Division of Youth Services |
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Jeff
March
Office
of the Prosecutor Coordinator |
Andy
Gentry
Public
Defender Commission |
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Terry
Williams
State
Crime Laboratory |
Allen Fitzgerald
Arkansas State Police |
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