Integrated Justice Information Systems
February 2000

Whereas:

1. The rapid development of interoperable information technologies and the explosive growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web have expanded the ability to transact information electronically. This now makes it possible for virtually all routine information transactions between federal, state, and local justice system agencies (including, for example, law enforcement, courts, prosecution, defense, corrections, probation and parole, and victim assistance agencies) to be made electronically.
   
2. Properly designed and implemented, integrated justice information systems improve the capacity of each component of the justice system, as well as the system in its entirety, to deliver justice in a more timely, efficient, and efficacious manner. The timely sharing of this necessary information among agencies better secures public safety both within a jurisdiction and across jurisdictional lines.
   
3. Advances in database design software and encryption technologies permit us to implement integrated justice information systems while protecting fundamental privacy interests. Privacy protections can and should be incorporated directly into the design of integrated systems.
   
4. Attorney General Janet Reno has called for all members of the justice enterprise "to work together to build an effective, responsible, integrated information-sharing capability between all law enforcement and other justice agencies. This includes information-sharing architectures between law enforcement, courts, prosecution, public defense, corrections, and probation and parole offices. It also means the ability to share information between state and local jurisdictions and with the Federal Government." Janet Reno, Justice and Public Safety in the Twenty-First Century, 30 McGeorge Law Review 5,6 (1998).
   
5. In the context of updating offender history record information systems, Congress and the President have recognized the importance of the coordinated planning and development of "information sharing systems." 42 U.S.C. Section 14601(c)(2). That same principle should apply to the development of all justice information systems.
   

THEREFORE:

The American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) Board of Directors endorses and supports on this the 13^th day of February in the year 2000, the cooperative and collaborative planning and implementation of integrated justice information systems at the federal, state, and local levels. Furthermore, American Probation and Parole Association Board of Directors requests that United States Congress, the federal judiciary, the President, and the United States Department of Justice take such steps as are appropriate to promote the development of such systems by agencies involved with justice at the federal, state, and local levels.