The PSA is an actuarial assessment that estimates the likelihood of three outcomes while on pretrial release: failure to appear, new criminal arrest, and new violent criminal arrest. Judges consider this, along with other information, to make informed pretrial decisions, including what conditions of release, if any, will help people attend court and remain law-abiding. Using a validated pretrial assessment is one element of APPR’s Roadmap for Pretrial Advancement.
To create the PSA, researchers used the largest, most diverse set of pretrial records ever assembled—approximately 750,000 cases from roughly 300 jurisdictions nationwide. Then, to validate the PSA, researchers used a dataset of more than 500,000 cases from multiple jurisdictions.
The PSA uses nine factors related to a person’s age and criminal history that the developmental research showed most effectively predict the likelihood of one of the three assessed outcomes. The PSA does not rely on a personal interview and does not consider a person’s community ties, neighborhood, or marital status.
The factors and methods used to calculate PSA scores are publicly available. Jurisdictions should provide individual PSA scores to the person charged, judicial officer, defense counsel, and the prosecution.
There is no cost to use the PSA.
Independent researchers rigorously evaluate the PSA on an ongoing basis and validate it in jurisdictions nationwide to maximize its accuracy and minimize its impact on racial disparities.
Research demonstrates that the PSA is predictive across different jurisdictions. All studies to date show that it does not exacerbate racial disparities.
This illustrated fact sheet shows how information from the PSA can support less use of financial release conditions with no negative impact on court appearance or crime.
In 2011, Arnold Ventures (AV) (formerly the Laura and John Arnold Foundation) convened a series of listening sessions with stakeholders in the criminal legal system to discuss intractable challenges, identify particularly urgent and high-impact problems, and begin to consider solutions. Many of these conversations focused on the need for stronger pretrial justice, particularly the benefits of pretrial assessments in helping to better inform decisions based on risk.
AV began working with a small group of pretrial scholars to gain a deeper understanding of the field. They learned that only a fraction of the communities around the country used pretrial assessments, largely due to the expense and/or the absence of an assessment that could be conducted without an interview. Given the limited resources available in many communities, the scholars set out to determine if they could spare jurisdictions these expenses while simultaneously improving pretrial outcomes, with a focus on safety and justice.
These efforts led to the development of the PSA. The PSA was piloted in partnership with select jurisdictions in 2013 and, after five years of testing and research, was released publicly in 2018. Today, in recognition that pretrial assessment is just one resource available to jurisdictions to help inform decisions and among a variety of strategies that can lead to improved outcomes, AV supports broad and comprehensive pretrial change efforts through APPR and other grantees.
Learn more about Arnold Ventures’ commitment to improving pretrial justice.
The PSA factors and algorithm are publicly available here.
Read the studies that evaluate and validate the PSA.
Discover what it takes to implement the PSA effectively and responsibly.
The guides provide all the information needed to implement the PSA.
Explore which states and local jurisdictions use the PSA.