Algorithmic Justice for All: Can Big Data Replace Cash Bail?

This presentation was part of the NNIP Showcase, Part 2 session at the October 2018 NNIP Partners’ Meeting.

In May 2018, NNIP partnered with the Microsoft Cities Team to launch Catalyzing Community Criminal Justice Reform with Data, a cross-site project to better understand the local criminal justice data and advocacy landscape and encourage more local data organizations to bring their talents to bear on these issues.  In Summer 2018, NNIP conducted a survey of Partners to learn about criminal justice related data, projects, and relationships.  NNIP will publish a fact sheet in the next few weeks summarizing the results and is now exploring options for an in-depth quantitative analysis on one aspect of criminal justice reform in a specific city.This showcase provides a lightning-quick overview for a few interesting projects we uncovered through the survey.

The Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas regularly works in the field of criminal justice with activities involving the various court systems, police departments, and criminal justice nonprofits in North Texas. As court systems move toward a restorative justice approach, the Institute has been engaged with nonprofits and government systems seeking to implement pretrial risk assessments and post-sentencing needs assessments. We’ll be providing an overview of how these efforts work to look beyond punishment and toward justice.