Commonwealth of PA Judge Retention Data Analysis
In Pennsylvania, we elect our judges. Judge elections are low information and little information is available for voters to make choices. Criminal court judges have 10-year terms in Philadelphia County. Therefore, a decision to retain an elected judge has a long-term impact on our criminal justice system. So what can one do as a concerned citizen to become better informed? Thankfully, court docket data is public data. We have assembled court docket data that can help shed light on how judges are performing their jobs. This data has been de-identified to allow participants to explore these issues.
Create resources or tools that can enable Philadelphia voters to make more informed choices about what judges to vote to retain on our courts.
View a video overview of this challenge submitted by Joy Payton.
Joy will be available over this weekend to answer any questions submitted via the shared google doc (see link under Resources).
The Judge Accountability Table (JAT) is a coalition of organizations working toward a shared mission of holding judicial candidates and judges accountable to our community’s vision of justice. The organizations of the JAT include:
- Reclaim Philadelphia
- Project SAFE
- LILAC
- 215 People’s Alliance
- Philadelphia Community Bail Fund
- Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project
- Amistad Law Project
- Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration (CADBI)
- The Center for Carceral Communities
- ICE out of Courts
- Pennsylvania Student Power Network
- Make The Road Pennsylvania
- DecarceratePA
- Black Lives Matter Philadelphia