The Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition congratulates Senate President Rosenberg, Speaker DeLeo, Governor Baker, and Chief Justice Gants on their collective effort to bring the Council on State Government's Justice Reinvestment team to Massachusetts. With today's eagerly awaited announcement, Massachusetts moves one step closer to joining 30 other states around the country that have embraced an evidence-based approach to corrections reform.

Over the past decade, numerous commissions have been convened to provide recommendations for improving the performance of the Massachusetts criminal justice system. Each of these bodies has noted that lack of data is a serious obstacle to making informed criminal justice policy. The Council on State Governments (CSG) will bring a team of experts skilled at assembling and interpreting corrections data. With a compact six-month window to complete their analysis, CSG's findings will provide practical guidance for lawmakers working to move on comprehensive corrections reform before the close of the 2015-2016 legislative session.

The Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition urges the state's criminal justice leaders to take advantage of CSG's expertise to increase the Commonwealth's internal capacity to collect and analyze corrections data. In our new era of big data, this capacity is critical to taking advantage of all that modern technology provides to manage risk and increase public safety.