Since forming AEJG in 2017, Anthony has built and led a diverse team to collaboratively tackle complex data challenges to promote data-transparency throughout the American justice system.
While doing legal research during his incarceration, Anthony wondered why modern technology wasn't utilized more often to measure disparities referenced in the collegiate, government, and non-profit studies he came across.
From there, he began his pursuit to create a basic database prototype to assess proportionality in the criminal legal system. He requested publicly disclosed data from the Department of Corrections, but soon saw analyzing this data would take technical expertise he didn't possess. Despite his requests for support, colleges, government agencies, and non-profit organizations were unable to help.
With assistance from Seattle Clemency Project pro bono counsel, Anthony was granted early release and was hired to be the first Reentry Coordinator for the organization.
He built out an innovative reentry system and went on to become the Reentry Program Director of the organization's reentry staff. All throughout, he continued to request public data and connect with academic and legal advisors to help him organize the data.
During a pro bono legal training session Anthony was leading at Microsoft, he mentioned the sentencing data he was collecting and found interest from those at the company.
Two weeks later, with Anthony at the lead, a “Hackathon” team with more than 30 Microsoft volunteers and criminal legal system experts built the database prototype Anthony set out to create three years prior. Now the AEJG Equity Dashboard, it covered 20 years’ worth of Washington state adult felony sentencing data from the Caseload Forecast Council (CFC). The team began meeting with additional experts and legislators to obtain feedback and start to advance changes in criminal data collection requirements.
The non-profit AEJG was legally formed in Washington state.
The initiative grew and aimed to make case data available to the entire public: AEJG fielded requests to bring the database to additional states and delivered database presentations to multiple State Supreme Courts and universities.
AEJG also received approval for case data going back to the late 1970s from the Washington state Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and incorporated this historical data into the Equity Dashboard.
With 501c3 status, Anthony and Kim continue their goal of assessing proportionality in racial justice. They are now working to integrate additional data from Washington and every U.S. state into the Equity Dashboard to provide all participants in the criminal legal system with up-to-date insights on decisions made throughout case lifecycles.