As we discussed in last week’s blog, more than 100 civil rights leaders and groups signed a joint statement on their concerns with using risk assessment programs in lieu of a bail system to determine whether people should be eligible for pretrial release. The shared consensus was that using algorithms to determine risk does not alleviate the disparities present in the pretrial justice system and in fact may worsen them.
Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference Education Fund, stated in a press call regarding the shared statement of concern that “America’s pretrial justice system is broken.” She went on to say that “If our goals are to shrink the justice system and end racial disparities, we can’t simply end money bail and replace it with risk assessments.” Other leaders echoed her sentiments including Monique Dixon, deputy director of policy and senior counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund who stated that “Pretrial detention reform must include solutions that will reduce the disproportionate incarceration of people of color, not worsen it.”
Across the board, civil rights leaders on the call questioned the ability of risk assessments to eliminate the evident racial disparities that exist. While there is an underlying agreement that the pretrial justice system in America must be fixed, the replacement of a monetary bail system with algorithm-based risk assessment programs does not seem to be the answer. All of the leaders and organizations that signed the shared statement of concern agreed that because risk assessment tools rely on biased data to begin with, the outcome can be nothing but biased. Instead, leaders call for reform on deeper level. A commitment to changing policies within law enforcement. There is a call to address the inherent racism that exists in our criminal justice and law enforcement systems. Until that is addressed, no risk assessment program that relies on data already skewed against minorities can provide a solution.
