The 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic and Its Corresponding Data Boon: Issues With Pandemic-Related Data From Criminal Justice Organizations

• Author: Sherry Towers,John Eason,Jason Walker,Danielle Wallace,Jake Nelson,Tony H. Grubesic
• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/10439862211027993
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862211027993

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2021, Vol. 37(4) 543 –568

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862211027993

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Article

The 2020 Coronavirus

Pandemic and Its

Corresponding Data Boon:

Issues With Pandemic-

Related Data From Criminal

Justice Organizations

Danielle Wallace1, Jason Walker1, Jake Nelson2,

Sherry Towers3, John Eason4,

and Tony H. Grubesic2

Abstract

Public organizations, including institutions in the U.S. criminal justice (CJ) system,

have been rapidly releasing information pertaining to COVID-19. Even CJ institutions

typically reticent to share information, like private prisons, have released vital

COVID-19 information. The boon of available pandemic-related data, however,

is not without problems. Unclear conceptualizations, stakeholders’ influence on

data collection and release, and a lack of experience creating public dashboards on

health data are just a few of the issues plaguing CJ institutions surrounding releasing

COVID-19 data. In this article, we detail issues that institutions in each arm of the

CJ system face when releasing pandemic-related data. We conclude with a set of

recommendations for researchers seeking to use the abundance of publicly available

data on the effects of the pandemic.

Keywords

criminal justice systems, data, COVID-19, pandemic, pandemic-related data

1Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

2The University of Texas at Austin, USA

3Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany

4University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA

Corresponding Author:

Danielle Wallace, Center for Violence Prevention and Community Solutions, Arizona State University,

411 N. Central Ave., Room 600, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA.

Email: danielle.wallace@asu.edu

1027993CCJXXX10.1177/10439862211027993Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeWallace et al.

research-article2021

544 Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 37(4)

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an extraordinary moment for the public availabil-

ity of data on population health and infectious disease. Health departments across the

world released copious amounts of data on the state of the pandemic, including

COVID-19 infection, testing, deaths, and hospitalization rates, as well as the avail-

ability of intensive care unit beds. This massive release of data has not been limited to

data published by health organizations; organizations in the U.S. criminal justice sys-

tem have also released substantial amounts of data related to how the pandemic is

affecting their agencies, staff, and the populations they serve.

This avalanche of data does not arrive without difficulties, such as the standardiza-

tion of data reporting and collection methods. Many of these problems are common

when using administrative data, such as the involvement of stakeholders in shaping

how the data are collected and released. In fact, the data might have been compiled for

purposes that are not necessarily compatible with research efforts. During the month

of July 2020, for example, in the United States, President Trump mandated that hospi-

tals send COVID-19 data directly to the Department of Health and Human Services

(DHHS). Prior to this, that information was being sent to the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC; Stolberg, 2020). Health experts decried the move, con-

cerned that shifts in warehousing practices for these data would change how they

would be released (Stolberg, 2020). Nearly a month later, in August, the Trump

Administration reversed its decision (Whelan, 2020b) and again allowed the CDC to

be the organization charged with collating hospital data after many reported delays and

data inconsistencies (Jercich, 2020; Whelan, 2020a), as well as increasing concern by

state and local officials over needing timely data to fight the pandemic. The intention

of shifting data warehousing from the CDC to the DHHS was twofold: the DHHS was

concerned the CDC was not flexible enough to collect new data, and to collect richer,

more inclusive data coming from hospitals. Yet, the switch, mid-pandemic, simply

created confusion and delays in hospitals’ reporting ultimately hindering the release of

valuable and timely pandemic-related data (Whelan, 2020a). This example of stake-

holder intrusion in data collection and reporting plays out at the state, county, and local

levels in the United States and internationally. Given the speed at which it was gener-

ated and released as well as the politicization of the pandemic internationally, salient

public data on COVID-19, while incredibly valuable to researchers in all fields, come

with caveats. This includes the need to assess the quality, content, validity, and reli-

ability of these data. In the U.S. criminal justice system, for example, the pandemic

may have permanently changed how organizations function on a day-to-day basis. In

turn, this affects the data these organizations generate—whether the data are explicitly

related to the pandemic.

As scholars begin to think about researching how the pandemic has shaped the U.S.

criminal justice system, it is critical to understand the data that are available and what

are potential data limitations. Moreover, the pandemic has reshaped daily life so dras-

tically, that the quality of the data emanating from criminal justice agencies all over

the world needs to be thoughtfully considered. Agencies have face rapid and drastic