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The use of risk assessment instruments (RAIs) in the pretrial context is the subject of ongoing debate. Often seen as a way to address flaws in the current pretrial system including excessive reliance on money bail and the disproportionate impact on people of color, concerns exist that these instruments may actually exacerbate and amplify existing disparities in pretrial decision making.

The First Step Act requires the Department of Justice to develop a risk and needs assessment tool to be used by Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) to assess the recidivism risk of all federal prisoners. Inmates will be classified as minimum, low, medium or high risk, and will be placed in recidivism reduction programs based on identified needs.

A key pillar of the First Step Act, a bipartisan federal criminal reform bill signed into law in December 2018, was the creation of a risk and needs assessment tool for federal prisoners.  In July 2019, the Department of Justice first published this tool, the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs (“PATTERN”) and began using it to place prisoners in recidivism reduction programming and award certain benefits. This webinar discusses the origins of PATTERN as well as the many questions that remain about its design and implementation, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presented by Isaac Bryan, Master of Public Policy candidate, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Race Matters II: The Impact of Race on Criminal Justice
January 10-11, 2019 | Los Angeles, CA

Risk assessment – the assessment of risk of reoffending or risk of future violent behavior – is a hot topic. However, only rarely do lawyers address the questions raised by criminal justice-related risk assessment. This finding suggests that defense lawyers may not be paying enough attention to the issue. A key issue involves addressing how the risk assessment connects the dots between a specific client’s circumstances and the factors related to reoffending and violence.

NACDL Executive Director Norman Reimer's written statement to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security regarding implementation of the First Step Act of 2018 (S. 756). Accompanied by NACDL's FOIA request to the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs regarding the risk and needs assessment tool DOJ will create for such implementation.

Comments to Attorney General William Barr regarding the Risk and Needs Assessment System in the implementation of the First Step Act of 2018 (S. 756).