The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 3 : Executive

Chapter 068 : Office of Racial Equity

Subchapter 002 : Division of Racial Justice Statistics

• § 5013. Data governance

  (a) Data collection. In consultation with the Racial Disparities in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems Advisory Panel and the Racial Justice Statistics Advisory Council, the Division shall establish the data to be collected to carry out the duties of this subchapter.

  (1) Any data or records transmitted to or obtained by the Division that are exempt from public inspection and copying under the Public Records Act shall remain exempt and shall be kept confidential to the extent required by law. A State or local agency or department that transmits data or records to the Division shall be the sole records custodian for purposes of responding to requests for the data or records. The Division may direct any request for these data or records to the transmitting agency or department for response, provided that the Division shall respond to a Public Records Act request for nonidentifying data used by the Division for preparation of the reports required by subdivision 5012(a)(7) and subsection 5012(b) of this title.

  (2) The Division shall identify which State and local agencies or departments possess the data necessary for the Division to perform the requirements and objectives of this subchapter. An agency or department identified pursuant to this subdivision shall, upon request, provide the Division with any data that the Division determines is relevant to its purpose under subsection 5011(b) of this title, provided that the Office of the Defender General shall not be required to make any disclosures that would violate 1 V.S.A. § 317(c)(3). The Division may identify non-State entities that possess the data necessary for the Division to perform the requirements and objectives of this subchapter and have access to the data of an identified entity pursuant to a data sharing agreement or memorandum of understanding.

  (3) The Division shall, pursuant to section 218 of this title, establish, maintain, and implement an active and continuing management program for its records and information, including data, with support and services provided by the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration pursuant to section 117 of this title and the Agency of Digital Services pursuant to section 3301 of this title.

  (b) Data analysis. The Division shall analyze the data collected pursuant to this subchapter in order to:

  (1) identify the stages of the criminal and juvenile justice systems at which racial bias and disparities are most likely to occur;

  (2) organize and synthesize the data in a cohesive and logical manner so that it can be best presented and understood; and

  (3) present the data to the Racial Justice Statistics Advisory Council as required under this subchapter.

  (c) Data governance policy. The Division shall develop and adopt a data governance policy and shall establish:

  (1) a system or systems to standardize the collection and retention of the data collected pursuant to this subchapter; and

  (2) methods to permit sharing and communication of the data between the State agencies, local agencies, and external researchers, including the use of data sharing agreements.

  (d) Data collection. The Division shall recommend to State and local agencies evidence-based practices and standards for the collection of racial justice data.

  (e) Publicly available data.

  (1) The Division shall maintain a public-facing website and dashboard that maximizes the transparency of the Division’s work and ensures the ability of the public and historically impacted communities to review and understand the data collected by the Division and its analyses.

  (2) The Division shall develop public use data files. (Added 2021, No. 142 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. July 1, 2022.)