Contact:
Hannah Riley Fernandez, The Center for Just Journalism, hannah@justjournalism.org
Nicole Funaro, Public Justice, nfunaro@publicjustice.net
Jen Nessel, Center for Constitutional Rights, press@ccrjustice.org
For the Record: the Center for Just Journalism, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Public Justice release a comprehensive guide to finding data within the criminal legal system and filing effective records requests
August 4, 2026 – Today, the Center for Just Journalism, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Public Justice released For the Record, a comprehensive toolkit to help journalists locate and access information on the U.S. criminal legal system as federal agencies delete existing datasets and states move to restrict public records.
In recent months, federal agencies have removed significant amounts of criminal legal data from government websites, including a database tracking federal law enforcement misconduct, data on the gender identity of people in federal prisons, and statistics on racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. At the same time, a growing number of states are considering or have passed legislation limiting access to records on executive and legislative decision making.
“Media coverage of the criminal legal system plays an outsize role in shaping public opinion and public policy, and too often journalists struggle to access the information they need to report on the system with accuracy and depth,” said Laura Bennett, the Director of The Center for Just Journalism. “This toolkit will help reporters obtain the data and records necessary to investigate this sprawling and opaque system, which is especially critical at a moment of declining government transparency.”
“The First Amendment protects our rights to free speech and a free press, but it also protects our right to observe our government’s conduct. The ways that our laws are enforced—whether on our streets or in our courthouses, jails, and prisons—is presumptively public information because it is all happening in our name and on our behalf. This right of access is just as critical to a functioning democracy as free speech and free press. We cannot scrutinize our government or demand accountability and change if we’re blind to what it’s doing,” said Jacqueline Arkush, Anti-Court Secrecy Attorney at Public Justice.
The toolkit is organized into three sections: data, court records, and public records. The data section has sources of data and opportunities for reporting on every major sector of the criminal legal system: police, prosecution, public defense, courts, jails, prisons, community supervision, parole boards, and youth justice. The court records section identifies the civil and criminal court records that are most valuable to journalists and explains how to access them at the state and federal level. And the public records section contains a step-by-step guide to requesting records on a range of criminal legal issues, along with dozens of successful sample requests.
“We hope this toolkit can assist not only journalists and legal advocates but anyone seeking government accountability, whether from the federal government or their local mayor’s office,” said Ian Head, manager of the Open Records Project at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
For the Record includes real examples of successful records requests, guidance on navigating sealed court records, and strategies for preserving data before it’s taken down—including using the Internet Archive and other mirroring tools to capture datasets before they vanish.
The full toolkit is available here.
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About the Center for Just Journalism: The Center for Just Journalism works with journalists and newsrooms covering public safety issues. Reporting on crime and the criminal justice system is complex and high-stakes, influencing personal and policy choices that impact people’s safety and freedom. Coverage can equip people and policymakers with the information they need to build safer communities, or it can provoke fear and anxiety. CJJ connects reporters with data, research, and experts, and promotes practices that help ground coverage in evidence and avoid sensationalism.
About the Center for Constitutional Rights: The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Follow the Center for Constitutional Rights on Facebook, @theCCR on Twitter/X, and @ccrjustice on Instagram, and @ccrjustice.org on BlueSky.
About Public Justice: Public Justice takes on the most significant systemic threats to justice of our time — abusive corporate power and predatory practices, the assault on civil rights and liberties, and the destruction of the earth’s sustainability. We link high-impact litigation with strategic communications and the strength of our partnerships to combat these abusive and discriminatory systems and achieve social and economic justice. For more information, visit www.public-justice.org.