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TagsBY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
John and Laura Arnold of Texas have been able to accumulate billions of dollars through a hedge fund at a relatively young age. The couple, under 40, are interested in giving much of their fortune away, and want to use their philanthropic interests to make the world a better place to live.
They formed the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, whose goal is to create reforms that will give individuals the best chance to succeed in society.
One of the individuals the Arnolds have recruited to their cause is Anne Milgram, former New Jersey Attorney General from 2007 to 2010. Milgram has joined the Arnold Foundation in an effort to reform the current criminal justice system. She wants to use smarter data analysis to study criminal justice.
Milgram calls the Arnolds’ method of philanthropy "Moneyball,” referring to the baseball story about the use of innovative statistical analysis. "It's hard to think of an area that is less data-driven and analytical than local government," she said, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Her team has put together a risk-assessment tool for judges that is set to be tested later this year.
Milgram, who grew up in East Brunswick Township, says that although law enforcement data management system CompStat has played a large part in reducing serious crime in New York City over the past 20 years, data from the front end of the criminal justice system, running from arrest through sentencing -- is not being analyzed effectively in most jurisdictions.
She notes, according to The Atlantic, that the FBI says there are about 13 million people sent to community jails every year, less than 5 percent of them being for violent crimes. Many of them stay for extended periods of time before receiving convictions.
According to arnoldfoundation.org, as Attorney General, Milgram implemented public reforms in the state through crime prevention, law enforcement reform, and re-entry initiatives. She has also been a member of the United States’ Attorney General’s Executive Working Group on Criminal Justice and a co-chair of the National Association of Attorneys General Criminal Law Committee.
