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The ultimate goal of the Justice Link (J-Link) Project is to create a comprehensive statewide information system
that will facilitate the instantaneous and transparent exchange of computerized
criminal records/information between the states various criminal justice
agencies, the Courts,
Attorney
General (BCI), Public Defender,
Corrections,
DCYF, State Police and local law enforcement agencies.
The State of Rhode Island had planned for a
criminal justice information system (CJIS) since the latter 1980’s. In the
summer of 1994, on the verge of the CJIS plan implementation, political concerns
and a severe state fiscal crisis resulted in several million dollars being
redirected from the CJIS project to help balance the state's FY 1994 budget. The
funding, derived from court fees/fines and moving violation surcharges, had been
held in a restricted receipt account. Shortly thereafter, the CJIS office at the
Supreme Court was closed and the project officially abandoned.
When the Rhode Island Justice Commission
Steering
Committee and Policy
Board determined that an integrated and comprehensive statewide computer
information system was the top criminal justice priority for the state, a CJIS-style
network became the basis of the state’s multi-year
Edward
Byrne Memorial Grant funding strategy. The Byrne program had historically
supported many disparate projects in Rhode Island criminal justice agencies. The
unanimous decision to concentrate
Byrne funds on the J-Link project represents an unprecedented
collaboration among state and municipal agencies. To facilitate the project, the
Steering Committee
formed a Technical
Advisory Committee (TAC), comprised of agency representatives with specific
expertise in the area of computer technology and management information systems.
Distributed Rather than Hub-Based
The new project, managed by the Technical
Advisory Committee and dubbed "Justice Link", differs from its
ill-fated CJIS predecessor. J-Link is a "distributed" rather than
"hub-based" system. There is no concern about the physical location of
information because the various databases remain with host agencies. However,
the distributed architecture makes the information available to all others on
the network. J-Link will not require a separate staff to administer or to
oversee system integration. Instead, the Technical
Advisory Committee has managed the project since its inception, and each
agency has been responsible for its own internal operations. All J-Link related
sites: the Courts,
Attorney
General, Public Defender,
Corrections
(Probation/Parole), DCYF, State Police, and municipal police departments,
will ultimately communicate via an ORACLEŽ-based relational database management
system. This will ensure the highest degree of compatibility between agency
networks, allow for distribution of data, and provide uniform access.
The completed Justice Link project will
ultimately allow for automated calendaring of criminal cases, enhanced
statistical reports and analyses. In addition, J-Link will provide
"real-time" responses to queries from local police departments, the
State Police, the Attorney General and
the Department of Corrections. The system
will contain criminal history and criminal identification information, data on
wanted persons, and stolen automobiles and property.
A brief update on the agency components of
Justice Link is as follows:
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