Artificial intelligence could aid in evaluating parole decisions

Over the last decade, there has been an effort by lawmakers to reduce incarceration in the United States without impacting public safety. This effort includes parole boards making risk-based parole decisions -- releasing people assessed to be at low risk of committing a crime after being released. To determine how effective the current system of risk-based parole is, researchers from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program and the University of Missouri, Kansas City, used machine learning to analyze parole data from New York. They suggest the New York State Parole Board could safely grant parole to more inmates. The study, "An Algorithmic Assessment of Parole Decisions," was published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology.