Racial disparities found in U.S. measurement of prisoners' risk: NPR

Thousands of "low-risk" inmates are leaving federal prisons this month, while fundamental flaws are existing in the U.S. Justice Department's method for deciding who can take the early-release track, the NPR reported on Wednesday, said Xinhua.

A law called the First Step Act allowed inmates to win early release by participating in programs aimed at easing their return to society. However, only inmates who pose a low or minimal risk of returning to crime can qualify for the programs, with that risk level determined using algorithmic tool, known as Pattern.

The biggest flaw is persistent racial disparities, which put Black and brown people at a disadvantage, said the article.

"The Justice Department found that only 7 percent of Black people in the sample were classified as minimum level risk compared to 21 percent of white people," Aamra Ahmad, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, was quoted by the article as saying.

According to the article, in a report issued in the end of 2021, the department said the algorithmic tool overpredicted the risk that many Black, Hispanic and Asian people would commit new crimes or violate rules after leaving prison, while underpredicted the risk for some inmates of color when it came to possible return to violent crime.