Douglas County criminal-justice council outlines 2025–27 priorities, seeks data-sharing agreements

Katie Fitzgerald, criminal justice coordinator for Douglas County, presented the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council’s (CJCC) 2025–27 strategic plan to the Board of Douglas County Commissioners on April 2, 2025. The plan identifies four priority areas — data, pretrial phase, programming and communications — and recommends creating a standing data committee to develop shared measures and data‑sharing agreements.

The plan matter-of-factly lays out the CJCC’s process: facilitated discipline-specific focus groups and a JMI (Justice Management Institute)‑led survey in October 2023, follow-up data collection from local criminal justice partners, and a planning retreat that produced the four priority areas. Fitzgerald told commissioners that the CJCC’s consultant team from JMI and the CJCC work group condensed qualitative and quantitative findings into a strategic plan and timeline intended to guide work over the next three years.

The nut graf: the CJCC’s work is intended to improve coordination across law enforcement, courts, treatment providers and community partners and to produce public, recurring system measures that the commission can use to assess outcomes. Fitzgerald said enhanced data sharing and common definitions would let the CJCC “identify trends, guide strategic discussion and inform decision‑making.” The CJCC’s bylaws require an annual report to the commission; Fitzgerald said the first formal annual report will be presented in June 2026, and the executive committee is open to interim updates.

Fitzgerald described how the plan was developed: JMI facilitated six focus groups (including a session with community members impacted by the justice system) and an online survey with 96 respondents, and staff gathered operational metrics from the jail, district court, the district attorney’s office, pretrial services, treatment courts, community corrections and court services. The consultant briefing that preceded the CJCC retreat included both the qualitative focus-group material and the assembled system metrics, Fitzgerald said.

The CJCC named an executive committee to oversee implementation. Fitzgerald identified the work‑group chair, Patrick Schmitz, CEO of the Bert Nash Center; Jessica Glendening, chief defender (Board of Indigent Defense Services); Susan Binkleman, chief court services officer; and Brad Finkeldui, the CJCC member representing the Lawrence City Commission, among those in leadership. Consultants Christy Danford and Amy Wickman of JMI supported the process.

Commissioners pressed for more frequent public reporting than the plan’s minimum annual presentation. Commissioner Reid said a written progress report this fall — short of a full annual report — would be useful because the CJCC will not have an annual report ready until mid‑2026. Commissioner Rolley and other commissioners supported fall updates and asked that the CJCC’s communications work group coordinate with county staff so commission members know how to engage with public releases.

Members of the public who spoke during the item praised the plan’s measurable objectives. One commenter said the plan’s performance metrics were well connected to measurable data and implementation steps. Other public commenters asked how datasets developed by the CJCC would be made available; Fitzgerald said the CJCC anticipates the data committee will develop data‑sharing agreements, data dictionaries and quarterly system measures and that making appropriate information available to the public is an explicit committee objective.

Fitzgerald said the CJCC expects to begin detailed work immediately on priority areas 1 (data) and 4 (communications) and that the programming priority will be a longer‑term effort focused on creating a continuum of programs to reduce crime drivers. She said the CJCC will refine timelines and identify responsible parties in subsequent committee work.

The presentation to commissioners was informational; no county action or vote on the strategic plan was requested or taken at the April 2 meeting. Fitzgerald and other CJCC members offered to return with updates; commissioners indicated they wanted at least one interim written update this fall in addition to the June 2026 annual report.

Ending: The CJCC strategic plan sets a foundation for cross‑agency data work and pretrial review, but many implementation details — including specific data‑sharing mechanisms and program rollouts — remain to be developed by CJCC work groups and the executive committee. The CJCC website and the full strategic plan (posted by staff) provide more detail on objectives and timelines.