PRETRIAL SERVICES AGENCY for the DISTRICT of COLUMBIA

PSA’s Risk Assessment Ensures Fair Administration of 

Pretrial Justice in the District of Columbia

The Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia (PSA) has served the Nation’s 

Capital for more than 50 years. Since our inception in 1967, we have remained dedicated 

to promoting pretrial justice and enhancing community safety. Consistent with this 

mission, each day we strive to strike the appropriate balance between individual liberties 

and public safety. Fundamental to this work is our use of a scientifically validated risk 

assessment instrument (RAI), which helps us determine appropriate release conditions to 

recommend to the court. In accordance with the law, our recommendations to the court 

reflect the least restrictive supervision conditions required to reasonably assure that 

defendants awaiting trial remain arrest-free and make all scheduled court appearances.

Based on averages for the past five years, our local court releases over 93% of arrestees 

without using a financial bond. Approximately 88% of these individuals remain arrestfree while awaiting trial and less than 2% are alleged to have committed a violent crime. 

In addition, 89% of released defendants make all scheduled court appearances. To 

provide context for these statistics, each year, an average of 18,480 defendants await trial 

in DC Superior Court who are in the community, either on personal recognizance or 

under PSA supervision. The released population is 80% Black, 17% White and 3% other 

racial groups.

Within PSA, we have used some form of risk assessment continuously since the Agency 

began and have leveraged developments in science and best practices to refine and 

improve our protocols and instruments. To be fair and effective, RAIs must be tested 

regularly to ensure they produce valid results for the population being served and are 

untainted by bias with respect to race, gender or other factors. In accordance with this 

understanding, we perform periodic independent revalidation of our tool. The most recent 

revalidation was completed in 2018 and our next one is scheduled for 2023. As one of the 

oldest pretrial agencies in the US, we are keenly aware of the national concern about the 

disparate impact on persons of color that can result from the use of risk assessment 

instruments. Consistent with this awareness, as part of our recent revalidation, we 

requested a specific analysis of the extent to which racial bias exists in PSA’s tool.

PSA's risk instrument was designed exclusively for the District of Columbia using a data 

set consisting of defendants assigned to pretrial supervision in DC. The RAI predicts each 

person’s risk of failure to appear and rearrest by evaluating 43 factors from five domains: 

criminal history, current charge, criminal justice system status, drug test results and 

defendant social/demographic attributes. The RAI produces numeric scores that correlate 

to each defendant’s likelihood of court appearance and likelihood of remaining arrest-free 

during the pretrial release period. The numeric scores then are translated to risk levels by 

PSA. These levels are used to develop recommended release conditions – and are never 

used as the basis for detention. PSA’s use of an RAI reflects our understanding of it as a 
PSA is a Federal Executive Branch Agency | www.PSA.gov | 202-220-5500

tool that supports – but does not replace – effective decision making by pretrial services 

officers and judges. 

The recent revalidation analysis assessed algorithmic bias in PSA's RAI. The independent 

evaluator found that, while risk scores and misconduct rates vary by race, the relationship 

between risk scores and observed misconduct remains stable across race. Essentially, this 

means that in the limited instances in which there is over- or under-assessment of risk, it 

happens consistently across racial groups. Where bias is detected, it is minimal and 

distributed evenly among all groups.

The error differences found in our RAI are small compared to the biases reported 

elsewhere in the nation and at the heart of concern in the field. Our analysis suggests that 

the revalidated RAI is sufficiently predictive and largely unbiased when evaluating 

defendants of different racial groups.

PSA’s use of an RAI represents the longest continuous use of risk instruments in the 

pretrial field. We recognize that the integrity and effectiveness of pretrial justice depends 

on the court’s access to objective information that helps to eliminate bias in decisionmaking. Research shows that when risk assessment tools are designed thoughtfully, 

independently tested and validated, and objectively applied, they can reduce racial and 

economic bias in decision-making and improve overall outcomes for justice-involved 

individuals. We believe our efforts contribute significantly to the fair administration of 

pretrial justice and our results demonstrate the efficacy of our efforts to keep the District 

of Columbia a safe place to live, work and visit.

Published February 2022