Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) and RTI International are pleased to offer a virtual office hour to discuss local validation of the Public Safety Assessment (PSA). This unstructured session—available at no cost—is designed to answer your questions. The drop-in session will take place on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, from 1 to 2 p.m. ET.
This Office Hour focuses on the training The PSA: An Ongoing Discussion on Predictive Validity from April 25, 2024. The session is relevant for staff scoring the PSA, pretrial coordinators and directors, pretrial policymakers, and stakeholders who have questions about local validation. This session has no space limitation, but participants must register by Thursday, August 1.
About the Office Hour
Actuarial pretrial assessments like the PSA estimate the likelihood that similarly situated people will appear in court for pretrial proceedings and remain arrest-free while on pretrial release. While studies show that pretrial assessments improve decision making and outcomes, completing regular validation studies every one to three years helps ensure that the tool is predictive for the local population and tests whether it predicts differently by race or gender.
Office Hour Faculty
The faculty for this session have many years of experience with pretrial justice and pretrial supervision.
Dr. Kelvin L. Banks, associate director, Center for Effective Public Policy
Dr. Banks has more than 20 years of criminal legal system experience, with the past 10 years in pretrial justice. He was previously the director of Harris County Pretrial Services and Pretrial Services for the Third Judicial Circuit of Michigan.
Kristin Bechtel, PhD, principal scientist, Center for Criminal Legal Systems Research at RTI International
Dr. Bechtel’s research focuses on identifying and advancing effective and equitable policies and practices in pretrial, prosecution, public defense, community supervision, and corrections. Her research expertise includes assessment development, validation, and implementation, supervision conditions and practices, and process and outcome studies of programs and interventions. Dr. Bechtel was a lead researcher for the development and implementation of the PSA.
Jessica Ireland, senior manager, Center for Effective Public Policy
Ms. Ireland has more than 20 years of experience in the justice system at the local and state levels. She previously served as the program manager for Mecklenburg County Pretrial Services in North Carolina.
Stephen Tueller, PhD, statistician and quantitative psychologist, RTI International
Dr. Tueller’s program of research is focused on developing statistical models and software tools for research in criminal justice, juvenile justice, human trafficking, risk assessment, child welfare, substance use, and severe mental illness. He is an expert in risk assessment, R package (code) development, developing models for partially classified data, and analyses for single-subject and idiographic clinical trials.
Application Process
Participants must complete the training registration by Thursday, August 1.
Please direct any questions to Samuel Steed, operations assistant at the Center for Effective Public Policy, at ssteed@cepp.com.