In Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the results of such assessments are given to judges during criminal sentencing. They are used to inform decisions about who can be set free at every stage of the criminal justice system, from assigning bond amounts - as is the case in Fort Lauderdale - to even more fundamental decisions about defendants’ freedom. Scores like this - known as risk assessments - are increasingly common in courtrooms across the nation. Prater is serving an eight-year prison term for subsequently breaking into a warehouse and stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of electronics.
Borden has not been charged with any new crimes. Two years later, we know the computer algorithm got it exactly backward. Prater - who is white - was rated a low risk. Borden - who is black - was rated a high risk. Yet something odd happened when Borden and Prater were booked into jail: A computer program spat out a score predicting the likelihood of each committing a future crime.
Borden had a record, too, but it was for misdemeanors committed when she was a juvenile. He had already been convicted of armed robbery and attempted armed robbery, for which he served five years in prison, in addition to another armed robbery charge.
Hype pro e contro full#
Read about how we analyzed the risk assessments algorithmĭownload the full data used in our analysisĬompare their crime with a similar one: The previous summer, 41-year-old Vernon Prater was picked up for shoplifting $86.35 worth of tools from a nearby Home Depot store.