ICJIA | About Us

The mission of the Authority is to improve the administration of the criminal justice system. The Authority has identified two goals to achieve this mission:

• Identify critical issues facing the criminal justice system in Illinois and propose and evaluate policies, programs and legislation that address those issues.
  
• Ensure the criminal justice system in Illinois is as efficient and effective as possible.

The activities of the Research and Analysis Unit (R & A) are planned and conducted to be supportive of the Authority's mission.

The Research and Analysis Unit serves as the Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) for the State of Illinois. Originating in the mid-1970s with small federal subsidies for criminal justice data collection and analysis, SACs are currently operating in 48 of the 56 states and territories. The Justice Research and Statistics Association, through state dues and grant support from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, functions as an association of SACs.

For more information about the Research and Analysis Unit Email: cja.irc@illinois.gov.

Research and Analysis Quarterly Reports

• 2010 Reports
  • September
  • June
  • March
• 2009 Reports
  • Deccember
  • October
  • June
  • March
• 2008 Reports
  • December
  • September
  • June
  • March
• 2007 Reports
  • December
  • September
  • June
  • March

Mark Myrent is Associate Director of the Research and Analysis Unit. He most recently served as research director for the Cook County Juvenile Court, where he conducted research on juvenile detention alternatives and on mental health screening of court-involved youth. Before that he was Illinois Integrated Justice Information System (IIJIS) project manager, a senior research manager with the Research & Analysis Unit, and has served in various other capacities with the Authority. His extensive experience in the field of criminal justice includes having taught at Loyola University, Chicago, and the College of DuPage, and he was a juvenile justice specialist with the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission/Juvenile Justice Commission. He is a doctoral candidate (2008) in criminal justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has a master's degree in that field, and also has a B.A. in psychology from Northern Illinois University. He is the author of numerous publications on the subjects of juvenile justice trends, disproportionate minority contact, the IIJIS project, computerized access to criminal history records, victim assistance programs, jail crowding, and topics relating to trends in law enforcement. He has acted as chairman of the Cook County Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Research Committee, as vice-chairman of the Salvation Army Correctional Services Advisory Committee, and is the Authority's designee to the Redeploy Illinois Oversight Board.

Research and Analysis Unit Staff

	Name: Sharyn Adams Title: Research Analyst Education: B.S., Anthropology University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
	Name: Jessica Ashley Title: Research Analyst Education: M.S., Criminal Justice, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
	Name: Carolyn Rebecca Block, Ph.D. Title: Senior Research Analyst Education: Ph.D., Sociology University of Chicago
	Name: Lindsay Bostwick Title: Research Analyst Education: M.A., Social Service Administration University of Chicago
	Name: Kim Burke Title: Research Analyst Education: M.A., Sociology DePaul University
	Name: Christine Devitt Title: Research Analyst Education: M.A., Applied Social Psychology Loyola University Chicago
	Name: Tracy Hahn Title: Senior Research Analyst Education: M.P.A., Public Administration/Political Science Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
	Name: Erica Hughes Title: Research Analyst Education: M.A., Criminal Justice University of Illinois at Chicago
	Name: Ernst Melchior Title: Computer System Software Specialist Education: M.C.S., Artificial Intelligence and Database DePaul University
	Name: Adriana Perez Title: Research Analyst Education: M.A., Sociology DePaul University
	Name: Sal Perri Title: Research Analyst Education: B.A., Criminal Justice University of Illinois at Chicago
	Name: Idetta Phillips Title: Research Analyst Education: M.A., Guidance and Counseling, Northeastern Illinois University
	Name: Mark Powers Title: Research Analyst Education: M.A., Criminology, University of South Florida