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Pretrial assessments are criticized for inherent biases. We conduct research in Kentucky to assess the predictive validity and differential prediction by sex of one pretrial assessment, the Public Safety Assessment (PSA). Our research is unique because we find equal base rates by sex for missing a court date, which allows us to assess for error rate balance by sex. We find the PSA to have predictive validity within acceptable ranges for the criminal legal field. The analyses show a lack of evidence of predictive bias for any arrest or missing a court date, and we find equal error rates for five different error measures. The analyses contribute to methodological debates about how to measure predictive bias with assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prison administrators are faced with the arduous task of maintaining order in an environment that is often characterized as chaotic. This task is made increasingly more difficult as administrators must observe individual rights, operate within rapidly diminishing budgets, and satisfy shifting philosophical penal goals--oscillating between rehabilitation and punishment. In an attempt to accomplish these goals, administrators often utilize various systems of rewards and punishments to sustain a comfortable living environment for inmates, as well as ensuring safety for inmates and staff alike. In this paper, the authors analyze institutional records documenting the request and receipt by inmates for various sexually explicit magazines. The results indicate that few inmates (less than 4%) request such magazines. Among those receiving such, Whites and violent offenders receive a higher proportion than their institutional representation, while sex and drug offenders are the least likely to receive such magazines. These findings are especially significant as this prison operates with a very liberal institutional policy regarding the receipt of sexually explicit material. (Contains 2 tables.)

This study is an evaluation of predictive bias by race when using a pretrial risk assessment. We use data from Kentucky from July 2013 through December 2014 (n = 164,597) to evaluate differences across five error measures. Pretrial risk assessments were developed to respond to growing awareness about how intuitive processes were leading to disparate impact for people of color and the poor. This study contributes data to the debate about the merits of pretrial risk assessments. The crux of this debate is the lack of standards about how to assess predictive bias. Our analyses demonstrate that a more nuanced understanding of pretrial outcomes and decision making are needed before fully understanding the strengths and weaknesses of pretrial risk assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]