The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/tag/risk-assessment/)
A risk assessment tool used for two decades to assess sex offenders’ likelihood of committing a future offense has been repeatedly exposed as “pseudo-scientific humbug.” So why do New York State courts continue to use it?
A Washington State parole board rejected our columnist’s appeal for release from prison for a crime committed when he was a juvenile on the grounds that he had a “moderate to high” likelihood of re-offending. But they appear to have based the decision on a psychological risk assessment tool used to measure adult offenders.
Two computer scientists, writing in the journal “Science Advances,” say the two-decade-old COMPAS system is no more accurate or fair than predictions made by people with little or no criminal justice expertise.” Over the past two decades, the program has been used to assess more than one million criminal offenders.
Critics charge that despite claims of objectivity, algorithms reproduce existing biases, disproportionately targeting people by class, race, and gender. Reformers say another New York City bill, the Right to Know Act, doesn’t go far enough.
Early evidence suggests some risk assessment tools offer promise in rationalizing decisions on granting bail without racial bias. But we still need to monitor how judges actually use the algorithms, says a Boston attorney.
The first baseline measurement of pretrial justice across the U.S. has found most states to be failing, with a few “promising” exceptions, according to the Pretrial Justice Institute.
In Philip K. Dick’s “Minority Report,” criminals could be identified before they committed a crime. Computer-generated risk algorithms used by courts to determine whether individuals should be released ahead of trial have brought us a step closer to that world–and our challenge is to use them responsibly, says a George Mason University professor.
Tools that use algorithms to determine whether to detain accused individuals before a trial are increasingly being used across the country as an alternative to the bail system. But the vice president of the Los Angeles County Association of Deputy District Attorneys argues that the tools also lead to tragedies.
New Jersey’s use of an algorithm to advise judges on pretrial release “is what the new vision of American justice looks like,” NBC News reports. Six months into the new practice, New Jersey jails are already starting to empty, and the number of people locked up while awaiting trial has dropped.
The proposal by Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Rand Paul would authorize total spending of $10 million a year for states that replace cash bail with a system that considers community risk, not a defendant’s ability to pay. New Jersey has already moved forward with a system that some call a model for the nation.