In December 2000, the Mayor's office formed the Criminal Justice Steering Committee (CJSC) to address the current and future needs of the Davidson County Justice System. This committee is chaired by the Mayor and is composed of leading figures in the criminal justice system. Each member has a common, yet unique, interest and responsibility to manage persons under correctional supervision. The CJSC developed and implemented a strategic plan to address the future growth of the Davidson County jail population.
One recommendation in the strategic plan was to develop an independent criminal justice unit whose main purpose would be to improve projections of the future inmate population and persons under correctional supervision. The goal was to assist policy makers to better plan for the expected inmate population of correctional facilities, intermediate sanctions, and other criminal justice services and programs.
For that purpose, the CJSC named a Criminal Justice Planning Advisory Board. In January 2003, the Steering Committee also created a unit of employees which later came to be called Criminal Justice Planning (CJP). CJP's main focus is to forecast inmate populations under correctional supervision by the use of computer modeling. Therefore, CJP is tasked with presenting an annual report which predicts and assesses the five-year correctional inmate population for Davidson County. Additionally, this department will be available to provide accurate data and credible analysis to policy makers when making decisions for the Davidson County Justice System.