If you’re reading this, it likely means that people in your jurisdiction are taking important steps toward examining your pretrial system with the hope of making it more effective, fair, and lawful. An actuarial, or research-based, pretrial assessment such as the PSA is often an important component of an effective pretrial system. [1] The PSA is designed to assist judicial officers in making pretrial decisions. Based mainly on criminal history records, the PSA provides information about the likelihood that people will appear in court and will not be arrested pending case disposition. Dozens of jurisdictions have adopted the PSA, including the states of Arizona, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Utah—and some of the largest cities in the United States, such as Phoenix, St. Louis, Chicago, Houston, Newark, NJ, and Charlotte, NC.

This is the first in a series of guides that provide information about implementing pretrial improvements, with a focus on using the PSA. This guide discusses the technical and operational aspects of using an actuarial pretrial assessment such as the PSA. Once a jurisdiction’s leaders decide they are ready to implement the PSA, other resources, including the Overview to Change Management and Critical Implementation Issues, highlight several topics they should consider at the start of the process. Other materials here provide overviews of the PSA and the implementation process.

In 2013, Arnold Ventures created the PSA using the largest, most diverse set of pretrial records assembled to date—1.5 million cases from nearly 300 jurisdictions across the United States. Out of those cases, about half (750,000) could be used for analysis; in the other cases, people had been detained or the data were incomplete. After thorough testing, researchers identified nine factors that best predict the likelihood that people who are charged will appear in court and will not be arrested for any offense, including a violent offense.

1. Age at current arrest
2. Current violent offense
   1. Current violent offense and 20 years old or younger
3. Pending charge at the time of the arrest
4. Prior misdemeanor conviction
5. Prior felony conviction
   1. Prior conviction
6. Prior violent conviction
7. Prior failure to appear pretrial in the past two years
8. Prior failure to appear pretrial older than two years
9. Prior sentence to incarceration

The PSA scores are calculated based on points assigned to each factor and weighted according to the strength of the relationship between the factor and each of three pretrial outcomes: failure to appear (FTA), new criminal activity (NCA), and new violent criminal activity (NVCA). Scores for FTA and NCA are generated by converting the points to two separate scales of 1 to 6, with lower scores indicating a greater likelihood that people will appear for court and not be arrested. For NVCA, a “flag,” rather than a six-point scale, is used: the flag indicates an elevated likelihood of being arrested for a new violent offense.

In most jurisdictions, staff review local databases to determine whether any of the nine factors exist for each case. For example, staff indicate the person’s age, whether the current offense is considered violent, whether there is a pending charge at the time of the current arrest, and so on. But staff do not manually calculate the points and scales. Instead, the PSA scores are computed automatically based on software business requirements. The PSA is either programmed into an existing IT system or functions as a stand-alone application. Some jurisdictions have partially auto-populated PSA applications that analyze data sources and pull responses to some or all of the nine factors. This reduces the need for a staff member to analyze and input some of the responses.

Once the PSA is completed, the software application generates a report that includes the scores and the PSA factor responses and suggests pretrial release conditions based on those scores and locally developed policies. The pretrial assessment report is provided to the judicial officer and, in most jurisdictions, is made available to the prosecutor and defense attorney. These reports give judicial officers additional information to help guide their decisions. Regardless of the PSA scores and any suggested release conditions, judicial officers remain free to make any decision they deem appropriate—including releasing the person on recognizance or detaining them in jail until trial—so long as it is permitted by law in their jurisdiction.

Even if your jurisdiction already uses a pretrial assessment, you must evaluate whether your jurisdiction meets the minimum requirements for using the PSA. Based on the experiences of other jurisdictions, readiness depends on the following, at a minimum:

• a commitment to use the PSA to inform decisions;
• the availability of data to score the nine PSA factors;
• the capacity to automate the PSA; and
• the availability of staff to complete the PSA.

The PSA Readiness Checklist can help assess whether your jurisdiction is ready to use the PSA. The remainder of this guide provides information about each of the key requirements that will help you and your colleagues determine that.

Stakeholder Commitment

Adopting an actuarial pretrial assessment is a process that cannot be easily driven from the top down. Whether your jurisdiction is shifting from using another assessment or has never used one, implementation will require a team of influential, experienced stakeholders to provide credibility to others in the system and reinforce that this change is needed. Although it is likely that some of your jurisdiction’s stakeholders support the use of an actuarial pretrial assessment, it is also possible that some have either not fully committed to the project or are simply less informed about the need to do business differently.

In most jurisdictions, the key stakeholders involved in the pretrial process include judicial officers, court administrators, pretrial services staff, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the sheriff and other law enforcement officers, and jail administrators. Their support for both the implementation process and the use of the PSA is essential. Many jurisdictions also involve community members in their efforts to improve the pretrial system, including people who have experience with or have been directly impacted by it.

It is also important for a jurisdiction to identify a project champion: a leader who actively and visibly participates in the process—someone who can help build a coalition of support among other leaders and can inspire others by communicating a persuasive vision and path. A project champion plays a crucial role in implementing pretrial improvements and sustaining this work.

Complete the PSA Readiness Checklist to determine whether you have the necessary support for this initiative in your jurisdiction.

Data Availability

For many jurisdictions, the availability of data determines whether a site is ready to adopt the PSA. The Readiness Checklist specifies the data elements a jurisdiction must have access to in order to score each PSA factor, track outcome measures, and assess staff and PSA performance.

Complete the PSA Readiness Checklist to determine whether the necessary data are available in your jurisdiction’s databases.

PSA Automation

In most jurisdictions, staff review local databases to respond to the nine PSA factors. As mentioned earlier, staff do not manually calculate the points and scores, and the PSA must be automated and programmed to calculate results and run reports. In most jurisdictions, the PSA is automated by integrating it into an existing data system, such as the one used by the courts, jail(s), or a pretrial services entity. Some jurisdictions conclude that such integration is not possible and they must install a separate new PSA software application. You will need to decide how to automate the PSA and whether your jurisdiction has sufficient in-house resources to accomplish the necessary programming. Some jurisdictions find that they are unable to modify certain systems with in-house resources because the systems are owned by private vendors, were built by private vendors and are too costly to revise, or are decades old and no one has the expertise to modify them. Several jurisdictions have contracted with private software vendors to program the PSA into the modules those businesses offer. The Guide to PSA Automation can help your site assess its information technology resources and needs. Contact the APPR Help Desk to obtain a list of software vendors that are licensed by Arnold Ventures to assist with PSA automation.

Complete the PSA Readiness Checklist to assess whether your jurisdiction has the ability and/or resources to automate the PSA.

Staff Availability

Staff must be available to review the relevant data sources and enter the PSA factor responses into the application in a timely manner. Staff also might have to generate pretrial assessment reports and disseminate them to the identified stakeholders. If your jurisdiction already has a pretrial services agency that uses an assessment, the answer to this question may be simple. If your jurisdiction does not have a pretrial agency, you will need to choose the entity that will be responsible for completing the PSA. Some jurisdictions have created new pretrial agencies within county departments such as county managers’ offices, probation departments, and sheriffs’ offices, and/or contracted with nonprofit agencies to provide the relevant services. Some states have incorporated pretrial services into state agencies such as the courts or the department of corrections.

One issue to consider is whether staff of the agency responsible for completing the PSA can readily access the relevant records and data systems. If they cannot, can new data exchanges or connections be easily created or obtained? Consider also that criminal history information can typically be accessed only by a law enforcement agency, though possibly by other agencies, depending on state laws and policies. Out-of-state criminal history is also required to complete the PSA. It is important to consider which agencies in your jurisdiction have access to out-of-state criminal history databases (mostly through the National Crime Information Center, or NCIC). [2] If your jurisdiction proposes having an agency complete the PSA that does not currently have access to all relevant criminal history databases, you will need to discuss how to arrange proper access.

Complete the PSA Readiness Checklist to determine whether your jurisdiction has adequate staff resources to adopt the PSA.