Statistical Analysis of criminal cases in the United States District Court of Puerto Rico

Project Information

ai, data-analysis, machine-learning, python
Project Status: Complete
Project Region: CAREERS
Submitted By: Gaurav Khanna
Project Email: carlos.paniaguamejia@salve.edu
Project Institution: Salve Regina University
Anchor Institution: CR-University of Rhode Island

Mentors: Diego Alcala
Students: Donnie Aikins

Project Description

For the purposes of submitting an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court, the Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (PRACDL) compiled several indictments and docket sheets from the PACER system. Data from these documents were extracted and analyzed with sociodemographic data from the US Census. Nevertheless, there is still an opportunity to continue to analyze the remaining data to present a visual representation of not only the type of cases seen in this court but also the length of time that the case is "open", the percentage of persons represented by a court-appointed attorney, the average length of sentences, the number of persons granted bail, the number of persons with bail violations and the reasons for those violations, among others. An understanding of these data will facilitate related future social justice projects in this jurisdiction.

Additional Resources

Launch Presentation:
Wrap Presentation: 6

Project Information

ai, data-analysis, machine-learning, python
Project Status: Complete
Project Region: CAREERS
Submitted By: Gaurav Khanna
Project Email: carlos.paniaguamejia@salve.edu
Project Institution: Salve Regina University
Anchor Institution: CR-University of Rhode Island

Mentors: Diego Alcala
Students: Donnie Aikins

Project Description

For the purposes of submitting an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court, the Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (PRACDL) compiled several indictments and docket sheets from the PACER system. Data from these documents were extracted and analyzed with sociodemographic data from the US Census. Nevertheless, there is still an opportunity to continue to analyze the remaining data to present a visual representation of not only the type of cases seen in this court but also the length of time that the case is "open", the percentage of persons represented by a court-appointed attorney, the average length of sentences, the number of persons granted bail, the number of persons with bail violations and the reasons for those violations, among others. An understanding of these data will facilitate related future social justice projects in this jurisdiction.

Additional Resources

Launch Presentation:
Wrap Presentation: 6