Justice Information Sharing: A Legal Primer for Criminal Justice Practitioners in California

84 Pages Posted: 5 Sep 2012

See all articles by W. David Ball

W. David Ball

Santa Clara School of Law

Robert Weisberg

Stanford Law School

Date Written: December 4, 2010

Abstract

California criminal justice agencies need access to data in order to provide security, health care treatment, and appropriate programming, as well as to coordinate these activities with other agencies. By the same token, outside agencies — whether criminal, social service, or non-governmental — could often do their jobs more effectively with access to information generated or retained within particular criminal justice agencies. Criminal justice realignment under AB 109 has only heightened the need for inter-agency data sharing and cooperation, yet there continue to be misunderstandings about the legal framework surrounding information exchange.

This article aims to provide a basic, practical background on the legal rules relevant to information exchange, highlighting under what circumstances — and with whom — criminal justice agencies may share, must share, or must not share their information. The Article’s basic conclusion is that criminal justice data sharing is enabled by the existing legal regime.

Keywords: integrated criminal justice, data sharing, California, realignment, liability, information exchange, criminal justice

JEL Classification: D73, D83, D23, H11, H72, H77, K14

Suggested Citation

Ball, W. David and Weisberg, Robert, Justice Information Sharing: A Legal Primer for Criminal Justice Practitioners in California (December 4, 2010). Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 2141523, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2141523 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2141523

W. David Ball (Contact Author)

Santa Clara School of Law ( email )

500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
United States

Robert Weisberg

Stanford Law School ( email )

559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305-8610
United States

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