Risk-Based Sentencing and Racial Disparities

We can't know who will commit crimes, but statistical models can give us an idea of who is more likely to offend. It's not quite Minority Report -- rather than seeing crime before it happens, the justice system uses risk assessment tools to gauge the probability of future offending based on factors like age, gender, and criminal history. This information is then used to inform a variety of decisions, including granting parole release, prioritizing who should receive programming (like drug treatment), or deciding how strictly probationers and parolees should be supervised.

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