DOJ Vows to Improve Recidivism Risk Tool Skewed by Racial Bias
Sloppy math mistakes and other flaws in an algorithm used by the DOJ have put thousands of prisoners in the wrong risk category and treated them differently, in part because of their ethnic or racial backgrounds.
Landwebs
Sloppy math mistakes and other flaws in the system have put thousands of prisoners in the wrong risk category and treated them differently, in part because of their ethnic or racial backgrounds.
The Justice Department’s use of an algorithm, known as Pattern, to assess a prisoner’s risk of re-offending continues to overestimate the number of Black women who will engage in recidivism, compared to white women in prison, reports NPR.
The First Step Act offers low and minimum risk prisoners a path to early release, by earning “good timer” credits for performing work and taking educational classes behind bars, but how the Bureau of Prisons assesses risk has major consequences for their lives and their release plans.
NPR analyzed problems with Pattern in a report earlier this year.
A report sent to Congress this week and obtained by NPR, pledged the DOJ would continue to work “to ensure that racial disparities are reduced to the greatest extent possible.”
Some observers were skeptical.
“When using factors with criminal history, prison discipline, and education, the tool is almost inevitably going to have disparities — unless they correct for systemic biases in policing, prosecution, corrections, and education,” said Melissa Hamilton, a law professor at the University of Surrey who has closely followed the process.
The DOJ estimated that 36 percent more Black men and 26 percent more Hispanic men might now qualify as minimum or low risk, with smaller increases for Black and Hispanic women in prison.
