Open Society Research Looks at New Technology Predicting Recidivism Without Being Racist
So you’ve just been arrested. Welcome to Philadelphia’s criminal justice system. You’ll soon be whisked into a room where bail will be assigned to you — likely in a matter of seconds — by a bail magistrate or a judge who has access to your record. Maybe they’ll let you go. Maybe they’ll set your bail sky-high. Maybe they won’t offer you bail at all.
And if you’re one of the people with the latter fate or someone who can’t post cash bail, you’ll await trial in a jail cell on State Road. Good luck.
The current process of assigning bail is far from scientific. As part of sweeping changes to Philadelphia’s criminal justice system that are afoot, city officials are working with top data scientists to develop a computerized risk assessment tool that looks at a variety of factors and assigns a defendant a label: Low-, medium- or high-risk. Bail will be assigned from there, and the ultimate goal is to get more pretrial defendants out of the city’s jails while working to eventually end cash bail entirely. . .