Pretrial Risk Assessment Tool Developed for Alaska

A shorter version of this article appeared on pp. 4–8 of the Winter 2018 print edition.Beginning January 1, 2018, judicial officers, defense attorneys, and prosecuting attorneys in all Alaska courts began to receive information from a new pretrial risk assessment tool that calculates whether a defendant is at low, moderate, or high risk for failure to appear at trial or to commit another crime if the defendant is released pretrial. The tool, incorporated in Alaska’s new bail statute, aids in the judicial officer’s decision regarding pretrial bail conditions. This article looks at risk assessment tools in general and describes the development of Alaska’s pretrial risk assessment tool.History of assessment tools / Alaska’s pretrial tool / SIDEBARS / Proprietary and open risk assessment tools / Limitations and quality assessment of Alaska pretrial screening tool / Reference