California Prop 25: Algorithmic Risk Assessments instead of Cash Bail

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2 points·ibejoeb··3 comments

Up for vote in November and will determine whether measures in SB 10 [0] go into effect, replacing bail with algorithmic risk scores. This relies on Pretrial Risk Assessment Instruments[1] to score people on flight risk and danger to society.

I'm interested in the suppliers of such services.

[0] https://www.courts.ca.gov/pretrial.htm

Interesting progressive move. Bail system here seems to be used as a bargaining tool to get plea agreements and biases the system against those without resources.

What do you mean by “Suppliers of these services”? Are they going to outsource the risk assessment process? That’s disappointing... and I suspect will make for trouble. Why can’t we just do these things in house they’re a core function of the system. Then there’s no finger pointing about responsibility later. (Which is probably exactly why they would want to outsource it.)

Why is "algorithmic" in the title of this post? The only mention of "algorithmic" or "algorithm" is in the two statements opposing this proposition. There is mention of a "validated risk assessment tool" as part of the process, but it is not the only factor. The implication of the headline seems to be that is replacing the cash bail with a black box algorithm. That doesn't seem to be the case in my reading of it. Does anyone have more insight?

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