Research Analyst

Job Posting

Agency Information:
Kansas Sentencing Commission

About the Position

* Who can apply:
Anyone

* Classified/Unclassified Service:
Unclassified

* Full-Time/Part-Time:
Full-Time

* Work Schedule:

Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Hybrid working environment may be considered

* Eligible to Receive Benefits:
Yes

* Veterans' Preference Eligible:
Yes

* Final date to receive applications:
Open Until Filled

Compensation:

* Annual Salary Range: $60,000-$63,000

* Note:

Salary can vary depending on education, experience, or qualifications.

Employment Benefits:

* Comprehensive medical, mental, dental, vision, and additional coverage

* Sick & Vacation leave

* Work-Life Balance programs: parental leave, military leave, jury leave, funeral leave

* Paid State Holidays (designated by the Governor annually)

* Fitness Centers in select locations

* Employee discounts with the STAR Program

* Retirement and deferred compensation programs

Visit the Employee Benefits page for more information

Position Overview:

This role is crucial for the Kansas Sentencing Commission (KSSC) as it involves collecting, managing, and analyzing KSSC's adult felony, probation revocation, and other sentencing data.

Key responsibilities include:

* Manage access to the Kansas Sentencing Application (KSApp) and troubleshoot issues experienced by users.

* Manage agency sentencing data and update agency dashboards annually.

* Ensure quality of agency sentencing data and perform thorough analyses to maintain data integrity.

* Merge, clean, update, and recode sentencing data files annually in accordance with sentencing policy changes.

* Perform data analysis for various reports and presentations.

Other Duties:

* Conduct virtual trainings and webinars on how to use the KSApp and dashboards.

* Produce monthly data reports for submission to the Research Director and Executive Director.

* Assist with projections for adult prison populations and custody classifications.

* Draft data requests and legislative impact assessments.

Job Description:

Maintain Kansas Sentencing Application (KSApp), KSApp Data, and Dashboards

* Manage user account access for the statewide sentencing form application (KS App).

* Troubleshoot KSApp issues reported by pre-sentence investigation writers, attorneys, and judges using the app.

* Assist the Senior Research Analyst with complex problem-solving in the KSApp and related communication and coordination with the vendor to resolve issues.

* Collect, manage, and analyze data collected by forms submitted in the app.

* Collaborate with the Senior Research Analyst, Research Director, and Executive Director on updates to the app.

* Lead virtual training sessions and webinars for practitioners on how to use the KSApp and dashboards.

* Update the Annual Report Dashboard annually and collaborate with the Senior Research Analyst to improve the dashboard. This includes efforts to:

* Consolidate and analyze each year's sentencing data and trends and prepare sentencing information for the dashboard, including prison admission, probation, probation revocation, and parole/postrelease violator data.

* Conduct statistical analyses necessary for producing the dashboard, including those on sentencing practices in Kansas, supervision violations, sentencing trends, and prison population forecasts.

* Assist the Senior Research Analyst with the development of other relevant agency dashboards (e.g., SB 123 mandatory drug treatment dashboard).

Management of KSSC Sentencing Data

* Design, develop, and maintain KSSC sentencing datasets, including:

* Adult felony sentencing data,

* Probation revocation sentencing data, and

* Other datasets as requested

* Update data elements for all datasets every year according to sentencing policy changes.

* Redesign or recode files for those data elements or variable changes.

* Perform data quality assurance of the KSSC sentencing database

* Merge, clean, and maintain sentencing data files so that the data is always ready for analyses and research.

* Perform quality control of the inputs of sentencing data, including monthly

¿ Running analysis on each sentencing data to ensure the quality of each dataset,

¿ Checking data validity and reliability of each sentencing dataset,

¿ Cleaning data and fixing problems or errors if any.

* Produce monthly data entry reports to

* Track and monitor the submission of sentencing journals from each county.

Adult Prison Population Projections and Custody Classifications Projections (Assist Research Director)

* Assist in the preparation of sentencing data, including KDOC's various data files and KSSC sentencing data necessary for the annual adult prison population projections

* Assist in performing analysis on current and historical sentencing practices and provide data information in tables or graphics for projection consensus meetings, including:

* Descriptions of the characteristics of various offender groups,

* Key findings of each year's admissions and stock population,

* Prison admission trends by admission type and prison population trends by…