Movement Alliance Project and MediaJustice created this website as a tool to support organizers and movements seeking pretrial decarceration. We believe organizers need to pay close attention to exactly how these tools are used, and approach risk assessment with skepticism when it is presented as a solution to pretrial incarceration.
This site both gathers information about where and how tools are used and shares our concerns regarding pretrial risk assessment tools used across the country. Information about pretrial systems should be public, but in many cases that information is difficult to find and not publicly available.
Our research was conducted by a team of organizers, interns, researchers, and local activists at Movement Alliance Project, as part of MediaJustice’s #NoDigitalPrisons campaign.
We have had to be creative in our fact-finding processes and work through the limitations that come from being a small non-profit organization. We have relied on secondary internet searching, direct interviews with pretrial decision-makers, and emails with public officials and bureaucrats, and publicly available FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests through MuckRock.
We do not expect our data to be perfect, and we know that information, especially about which county is using which tool, is constantly changing. We could not track every change in how jurisdictions use these tools over time, but we are excited to present this public information and receive your feedback as readers and practitioners on how we can improve this resource.
We did NOT get a snapshot of every single tool in use across the country. It is very possible that there are more tools in use that we do not have information on.
We also could be wrong about the tools we have or how they are used. We could have talked to the wrong person in our interviews, or the tool in use could have changed since we talked to them.
If you see a gap or a correction, please let us know! We are always looking to get more information.
