The Promise of Integrating Health and Corrections Datasets: A Short Report on Familial Impact of Parental Justice System Involvement

This case study describes the development of a novel cross-sector administrative data linkage in a large Midwestern city, which connected maternal justice involvement records from state and county systems with mother–child health data from adult and pediatric healthcare institutions. Designed to overcome barriers in studying intergenerational impacts of criminal justice involvement, the project was conducted in two phases: creation of a maternal justice dataset using public records; and linkage to a regional perinatal health repository via an honest broker. The resulting de-identified dataset enables research on mechanisms by which maternal justice involvement affects child health and healthcare use. Guided by a community research advisory board and approved by **IRB masked**, the study emphasized ethical considerations and minimizing potential harm. Despite limitations, this work offers replicable, cost-effective models for integrated data use that can contribute to national efforts to improve outcomes for justice-involved families through cross-sector collaboration and data-informed policy innovation.