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SD 3952

Franklin County Sheriff's Office Fourth Quarter 2025 Population Report

194th Legislature (2025-2026)

The bill standardizes quarterly, non-identifying jail population data reporting by sheriffs to state offices and Legislature to boost transparency and data coordination.

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Bill Summary · SD 3952

Summary of SD 3952 (Session 194th) – Massachusetts Franklin County Sheriff's Office Fourth Quarter 2025 Population Report

  • Ballot/ Bill Type: Administrative/Reporting measure within Massachusetts law, connected to the Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS). The document presented is the Fourth Quarter 2025 Population Report for Franklin County, produced under Chapter 126, Section 40 of Part I, Title XVIII of the Massachusetts General Laws.

  • Primary purpose and intent:

    • Mandate systematic recording and quarterly reporting of jail and house of correction population data for every person committed to a jail or house of correction.
    • Ensure anonymity by excluding any identifying information about individual inmates or detainees in quarterly reports.
    • Facilitate transparency and interagency data sharing by requiring sheriffs to deliver consolidated quarterly data to key state and legislative recipients.

  • Key provisions and data elements:

    • Data to be recorded for each inmate/detainee (no limitations stated beyond those items listed):
    • Probation Central File (PCF) number
    • State Identification Number (SID), if available (AFIS-based), fingerprint-derived
    • Race and ethnicity
    • Offense-Based Tracking Number (OBTN)
    • Type of release (e.g., pre-trial, sentenced, etc.)
    • Type of admission
    • Length of sentence
    • Jail credit from pretrial incarceration
    • Earned time
    • Program participation and outcome during incarceration
    • Case disposition
    • Bail amount or reason if no bail was set
    • Aggregate data: For each jail and house of correction, a quarterly report aggregating the data for the entire quarter, with identifying information omitted.
    • Reporting cadence and recipients: Each quarter, the sheriff must deliver the quarterly reports from every jail/house of correction to:
    • Secretary of Public Safety and Security
    • House and Senate Chairs of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary
    • House and Senate Chairs of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security
    • Clerks of the House of Representatives and the Senate
    • Data source integration: Reports are prepared in partnership with EOPSS utilizing the Commonwealth Criminal Justice Cross-Tracking System.
    • Data definitions and disclaimers:
    • Clarifies definitions for PCF number, SID, and OBTN, including limitations (data lag, not always available at intake, manual entry).
    • Important caveat: Three data points (case disposition, bail amount, and reason for bail not set) originate with the Trial Court and may not be fully populatable by Sheriff’s Offices. The governing bodies are working to refine retrieval from the Cross-Tracking System.
    • Data privacy: The sheriff’s offices must produce the report without any identifying information about individual inmates or detainees.

  • Affected entities and scope:

    • Primary: Massachusetts county sheriffs’ offices (specifically Franklin County in the provided report, but the framework applies to all counties).
    • State partners: Executive Office of Public Safety and Security; Trial Court; legislative Joint Committees on the Judiciary and Public Safety and Homeland Security.
    • The bill governs the process, content, and dissemination of quarterly jail/population data; it does not appear to impose penalties within the excerpt but sets compliance expectations and reporting obligations.

  • Procedural and timeline aspects:

    • Quarterly reporting cycle: Data covering an entire quarter must be compiled and reported every quarter.
    • Regular delivery deadlines are not specified in the excerpt, but the requirement is clear: deliver to the listed state and legislative recipients each quarter.
    • Ongoing refinement: Recognizes current data gaps (case disposition, bail, and bail rationale) and directs coordination with Trial Court and EOPSS to enable electronic reporting via the Cross-Tracking System.

  • Potential impact and considerations:

    • Enhances transparency and consistency in reporting jail populations.
    • Improves interagency data-sharing and oversight of corrections data.
    • May drive improvements in data completeness for key metrics that historically depended on multiple agencies (Trial Court data reconciliation).
    • Privacy protections are explicitly maintained by excluding identifying information from public-facing or aggregate reports.

  • Notable limitations and caveats:

    • Some data fields (case disposition, bail amount, bail rationale) may not be fully populatable by sheriffs due to dependency on Trial Court data flows; ongoing efforts are noted to address this.

Overall, SD 3952 formalizes a quarterly, standardized, non-identifying data reporting framework for jail populations, linking sheriffs’ offices with state agencies and legislative committees to promote transparency, data accuracy, and coordinated criminal justice system oversight.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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