How were the disproportionately impacted areas identified?

"Disproportionately impacted area" means on and after August 1, 2023, a United States census tract in this state that has been identified by the Social Equity Council by using (1) a poverty rate metric and (2) ranking of historical conviction rates for drug-related offenses by census tract.

To identify these census tracts, arrest and conviction records from the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) were geocoded to calculate the count of cannabis-related convictions in Connecticut from 1982-2020 by census tract. Geocoding refers to a process for converting street addresses into spatial data (latitude and longitude) that can be displayed as features on a map.

The address records from DESPP were cleaned and then geocoded. The geocoded address points were then assigned to census tracts using the TIGER/LINE shapefile from the U.S. Census Bureau that defines Connecticut census tracts. The conviction rates for each tract were calculated using the 5-year estimated population from the 2017-2021 American Community Survey (ACS), a product of the Census Bureau.

A more detailed technical memo describing the geocoding process is available here.