Justice Reference Architecture (JRA)

Solving interoperability challenges continues to be a significant problem and a high priority for the justice and public safety communities. There are approximately 100,000 justice agencies that share information across various information systems. This enormous scale creates multiple layers of interoperability challenges with variations in hardware, software, networks, and business rules for data exchanges.

Under funding from a grant awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the IJIS Institute has undertaken the JRA Service Specification project. This project is being provided oversight by the Global Service Task Team (STT) as a part of the Global Infrastructure and Standards Working Group (GISWG) JRA initiative.

The primary objective of this project is to develop Reference Service Specifications based on the Global Justice Reference Architecture (JRA) Service Specification Package (SSP) being developed by the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Services Implementation Committee (SIC). The SSP is an HTML catalog based on a set of templates that provides a consistent structure to JRA defined models and components. The JRA Service Specification was developed to provide developers/implementers with a guide to prepare a ‘blueprint’ for service development.

Justice Reference Architecture (JRA) Projects

Examples of our work supporting the JRA program include:

Creation of a prioritized list of fusion center capabilities
Creation of a business process model & JIEM reference model for fusion centers
Creation of fusion center reference service specifications for technologists implementing systems to support information acquisition, analysis, or dissemination

JRA Project Phase 1 Final Report (2011.11.08)

JRA Project Phase 1b Final Report (2010.05.18)

Justice Reference Architecture (JRA) Resources

Service Specifications

Service Specifications are a composite set of documentation, models, policies, contracts, and XML schemas that together provide a clear view of the service capabilities and business and technical requirements.

Read about completed and upcoming JRA Service Specifications

Global Justice Reference Architecture Web Site

The Justice Information Sharing Web site, hosted by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, provides a wealth of resources about the JRA program, including:

Reference Architecture Planning
Reference Service Specification Packages (SSPs)
Technical Reference Documents
Policy Reference Documents

This Web site is funded in whole or in part through a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this Web site (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).

IJIS Institute member companies, including Analysts International and Tetrus Consulting, have played an integral part of the Services Task Team (STT) for the JRA project. The STT committee provides steering support to the JRA Project.

The IJIS Institute, working in collaboration with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), SEARCH—The Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, and the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR), has performed project planning and management, and will be developing service specifications that conform to the JRA Service Specification Guideline.

IJIS Institute member company and selected subcontractor, Analysts International, provided critical resources and expertise to the development of the JRA Service Specifications.