114 Civil Rights Groups on Pre-Trial Risk Asssessment

114 civil and human rights groups, including Media Alliance, joined together to urge that pre-trial detention including risk assessment or predictive software and electronic shackles, be used as infrequently as possible.

The groups called for an end on money bail and for pre-trial detention to be used as a last resort imposed upon an accused person after they’ve received an adversarial hearing that observes individual rights, liberties, and the presumption of innocence.

Pretrial “risk assessment” instruments – although they may seem objective or neutral – threaten to further intensify unwarranted discrepancies in the justice system and to provide a misleading and undeserved imprimatur of impartiality for an institution that desperately needs fundamental change.

When such tools are used in spire of their problems, civil rights must be protected.

Recommendations to protect human rights are below.

Advocacy for Democratic Communications