Debating Risk-Assessment Tools [themarshallproject.org]

Risk-assessment tools are on the rise in courts across the country, causing a fierce debate over whether justice should be meted out via algorithm.

Sunday, The Marshall Project published a piece of commentary by Adam Neufeld, a senior fellow at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Policy and Law and the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation. In it, Neufeld comes down in favor of risk-assessment tools, arguing that algorithms can help the criminal justice system, “but only alongside thoughtful humans.”

To add to Neufeld’s thoughtful commentary, The Marshall Project solicited takes from other leading voices in the field. Here’s what they had to say.

[For more on this story by ELIZABETH GLAZER, HANNAH JANE SASSAMAN & JON WOOL, go to https://www.themarshallproject...isk-assessment-tools]

Photo:  Judge James Brady presides over the preliminary hearing for a defendant charged with first-degree felony murder in Provo, Utah, in August. SCOTT SOMMERDORF/THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS