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ugh okay, my mail-in ballot just arrived and it& #39;s time for a thread on CA& #39;s prop 25: the Replace Cash Bail with Risk Assessments Referendum. 
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a "yes" vote on prop 25 is a vote to end cash bail in CA, which, on its own, would be an important step towards abolition & a way to protect the health & well-being of folks who are pretrial, especially those who are low-income. i& #39;d love to vote for this. HOWEVER! READ ON! 2/x
prop 25 replaces cash bail with risk assessment algorithms, which use info such as prior conviction record, prior failure to appear in court, neighborhood of residence, & employment status to categorize people as "high risk" or "low risk" of failing to appear for trial. 3/x
however, the data used in risk assessment algorithms are neither reliable nor neutral. the incorporated information is impacted by the racist systems of over-policing, mass incarceration, poverty, & segregation - meaning that the risk categorizations are also racially biased. 4/x
as @ruha9 notes, the data measure how much a person’s life has been impacted by structural racism without ever including an explicit datapoint about a person’s race. Dr. Benjamin names how such algorithms are an “insidious combination of coded bias and imagined objectivity." 5/x
a study of risk assessment scores in Broward County, FL in 2016 found that one popularly used risk assessment instrument was two times more likely to wrongly label a Black person as “high risk” for rearrest pretrial, compared to a White person. 6/x https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing">https://www.propublica.org/article/m...
a study of US judges found that the use of risk assessments in a judge’s decision making about pretrial incarceration increased judges’ likelihood of incarcerating relatively poor people, while it reduced the likelihood of incarceration for the rich. 7/x
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3316266">https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pape...
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3316266">https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pape...
KY passed a bill in 2011 mandating the use of risk assessments. prior, there was a 2% difference in the proportion of White vs. Black people incarcerated pretrial. after the bill passed, the inequity increased to 10% w/ more Black people incarcerated. 8/x
https://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/13Stevenson_MLR.pdf">https://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-conten...
https://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/13Stevenson_MLR.pdf">https://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-conten...
the bottom line: we do not want to put something in place that we will just have to organize to undo later. let& #39;s end cash bail, yes. but let& #39;s also end the use of algorithms that produce racist results. let& #39;s end pretrial incarceration altogether. i& #39;ll be voting "no" on 25. 9/x
read more about the health impacts of ending money bail and pretrial incarceration in this report from @HumanImpact_HIP: 10/x https://humanimpact.org/hipprojects/liberating-our-health-ending-the-harms-of-pretrial-incarceration-and-money-bail/">https://humanimpact.org/hipprojec...
and check out this organizer& #39;s guide to confronting pretrial risk assessment tools in decarceration campaigns, from @CommJusticeExch: 11/x
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e1f966c45f53f254011b45a/t/5e35a639a96d977ad27f3ff0/1580574268825/CJE_PretrialRATGuide_FinalDec2019Version.pdf">https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e...
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e1f966c45f53f254011b45a/t/5e35a639a96d977ad27f3ff0/1580574268825/CJE_PretrialRATGuide_FinalDec2019Version.pdf">https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e...
