BiasMedium
Virginia Courts’ Algorithmic Recidivism Risk Assessment Failed to Lower Incarceration Rates
- Occurred
- Jul 1, 2003
- Published
- Nov 19, 2019
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Virginia courts’ use of algorithmic predictions of future offending risks were found by researchers failing to reduce incarceration rates, showed racial and age disparities in risk scores and its application, and neither exacerbated or ameliorated historical racial differences in sentencing.
Developers
- Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services
Deployers
- Virginia courts
Harmed parties
- Virginia young offenders
- Virginia convicted felons
- Virginia Black offenders
Classification
Category confidence: 90%
Severity confidence: 85%
Rationale: Algorithmic risk assessment showed racial and age disparities without reducing incarceration rates.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8