How Are Criminal Courts Using Algorithms to Determine Bail Amounts?
Getting yourself or a loved one released from pre-trial detention is a process that takes multiple steps. The first step, however, involves the judge setting a bail amount that's appropriate for the charges in question. Judges must take a number of factors into consideration, including the nature and seriousness of the crime, criminal background and your likelihood of posing a flight risk.
Although numerous efforts have been made to standardize and streamline the bail process over the years, experienced magistrates and judges remain burdened with reviewing numerous factors and evidence in a short period of time. As a result, some criminal courts are turning to algorithms to help calculate and set bail amounts.
How Bail Algorithms Work
Algorithm-based bail assessment programs offer a science-driven approach to the traditional assessments performed by judges throughout the country. Instead of utilizing direct input from judges themselves, most bail assessment programs perform risk calculations based purely on evidence and data. Some programs even compare current bail candidates against databases featuring similar cases, with the outcomes of those cases factored into the final decision.
The eventual decision is then tabulated into a machine-generated score representing the defendant's likelihood of skipping bail or committing violence while on bail. Scoring systems can vary among different bail assessment programs, but most scores come are represented as a straightforward sliding scale. In most cases, a low risk score increases the defendant's chances of having favorable bail conditions set.
So far, criminal court judges are using bail assessment algorithms in supplementary roles, usually as guides for granting or denying bail based on the algorithm's findings. Bail assessment programs aren't being used to set actual bail amounts and judges still exercise judicial discretion when granting bail.
How Algorithms Affect Your Bail
One noticeable advantage of bail assessment algorithms is their potential to remove judicial bias from the decision-making process. Most algorithms look purely at objective factors, from age and prior criminal history to previous failures to appear in court and criminal behavior during release. The purely data-driven process often excludes ethnicity, income and other irrelevant and potentially discriminatory factors that could prejudice the decision-making process. The judge's personal biases are largely kept out of the picture, as well.
Speed is yet another advantage of utilizing bail assessment algorithms. These tools allow criminal courts to further streamline the bail process by eliminating time-consuming steps, such as face-to-face interviews. A streamlined approach to bail assessment also means you'll spend less time behind bars pending bail review. Bail assessment algorithms also require less staffing than traditional assessments, making it easier for judges to set bail amounts in a timely manner.
What Drawbacks to Expect
Algorithm-based bail assessment offers a fairer approach towards crime-fighting, but it's not without its fair share of downsides. One such downside is that judges risk becoming completely dependent on machinegenerated scoring in spite of the supplementary role risk assessment algorithms are supposed to play. Judges risk ignoring extenuating circumstances and seemingly irrelevant evidence that could validate a defendant's fitness for bail.
And despite stringent efforts made towards completely eliminating bias, many experts have noted that the results can still be skewed by criteria that fail to accurately predict a defendant's risk factor. Prevailing worldviews can also impact the impartiality of the algorithm itself, resulting in assessments that produce inherently flawed results. Jurisdictions can also make their own modifications to the assessment process with minimal regard to how these changes affect the algorithm's accuracy.
Algorithm-based bail assessment is just another tool in the criminal court's arsenal that judges can use to set bail conditions. However, hiring an attorney to handle your criminal court case should always be your first step. For more information, contact The Law Office of Joe R. "Jay" Johnson, II.
