The algorithms of “risk and needs assessment” are the new bedrock of sentencing and parole; their accuracy, fairness and quality, the unpronounced measures of justice. For these tools that calculate recidivism and social order are too rapidly acquiring an exalted place in human decision-making.

For instance, the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS), like any analytic, can be flawed and biased, yet relied on without question. See Jeff Larson et al., How We Analyzed the COMPAS Recidivism Algorithm, Pro Publica, May 23, 2016.