How the PSA Works - Advancing Pretrial Policy & Research (APPR)

How It Works

The PSA measures nine factors to generate scores that estimate the likelihood of three pretrial outcomes: failure to appear in court, new criminal arrest, and new violent criminal arrest. Decision makers should use a locally developed Release Conditions Matrix to inform pretrial release decisions. Using a validated pretrial assessment tool is one element of the APPR Roadmap for Pretrial Advancement, which provides a comprehensive overview of policies and practices aimed at promoting pretrial justice.

Learn how the PSA works and how to responsibly use PSA scores to make more effective and consistent pretrial decisions.

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PSA Factors

The PSA uses nine factors to assess the likelihood of pretrial success.

Age at current arrest
Current violent offense
1. Current violent offense and 20 years old or younger
Pending charge at the time of the arrest
Prior misdemeanor conviction
Prior felony conviction
1. Prior conviction (misdemeanor or felony)
Prior violent conviction
Prior failure to appear in the past 2 years
Prior failure to appear older than 2 years
Prior sentence to incarceration

Pretrial Outcomes

A combination of different factors is used to predict the likelihood of three pretrial outcomes: Failure to Appear (FTA), New Criminal Arrest (NCA), and New Violent Criminal Arrest (NVCA).

FTA refers to a person missing a pretrial court hearing and the court, in response, issuing a warrant, capias, or other similar response.

The PSA uses four factors to calculate the FTA score:

Pending charge at the time of the arrest
Prior conviction (misdemeanor or felony)
Prior failure to appear in the past 2 years
Prior failure to appear older than 2 years

NCA refers to a person being arrested while on pretrial release. It includes both a custodial arrest and an arrest by citation or summons.

The PSA uses seven factors to calculate the NCA score:

Age at current arrest
Pending charge at the time of the arrest
Prior misdemeanor conviction
Prior felony conviction
Prior violent conviction
Prior failure to appear in the past 2 years
Prior sentence to incarceration

NVCA refers to a person being arrested for a violent offense while on pretrial release. It includes both a custodial arrest and an arrest by citation or summons.

The PSA uses five factors to calculate the NVCA score:

Current violent offense
Current violent offense and 20 years old or younger
Pending charge at the time of the arrest
Prior conviction (misdemeanor or felony)
Prior violent conviction

This table illustrates how the three pretrial outcomes are mapped to the nine PSA factors.

Factor Weights

Each PSA factor is weighted and assigned different points according to the strength of its relationship with the specific pretrial outcome. At the end of the assessment, the points for each pretrial outcome are totaled. The total points assigned to FTA and NCA are then converted to two separate scales ranging from 1 to 6. Lower scores indicate a greater likelihood of pretrial success. The points assigned to NVCA are converted to a scaled score and then to the presence or absence of a “violence flag." The tables below show how the PSA assigns points to the factors and then converts them to scaled scores.

This table shows how the PSA assigns points to each FTA factor. The points are not the final score.

The next table shows how the PSA converts the total number of FTA points to a final, scaled score ranging from 1 to 6.

This table shows how the PSA assigns points to each NCA factor. Remember, the points are not the final score.

This next table shows how the PSA converts the total number of NCA points to a final, scaled score ranging from 1 to 6.

This table shows how the PSA assigns points to each NVCA factor. Remember, the points are not the final score.

This next table shows how the PSA converts the total number of NVCA points to a scaled score and then to a “violence flag.”

Release Conditions Matrix

Before implementing the PSA, local pretrial systems must develop a Release Conditions Matrix—a local policy that matches the PSA scores to pretrial release conditions to support successful pretrial outcomes.

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