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Crazy/Genius

Should We Be Afraid of AI in the Criminal Justice System?

Crazy/Genius

The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC

Business, Society & Culture, Technology

4.61.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Algorithms pervade our lives. They determine the news we see and the products we buy. But most Americans don’t understand how they are transforming every part of the criminal justice system—from policing and bail to sentencing and parole. Could computers make the legal system more fair? Or is it inherently unjust to put a person’s life in the hands of an algorithm? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.0

In the US.S. legal system, defendants who can't afford an attorney are assigned a public defender.

0:39.0

Rachel Chichkerel is a public defender in our nation's capital.

0:43.3

I'm a staff attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

0:47.6

Rachel's clients are often children from low-income households, and she's used to seeing

0:51.6

a lot of egregious behavior directed toward them in the courtroom.

0:55.0

But in 2017, she saw something truly shocking.

1:00.0

That year, she took the case of a young defendant who will call D.

1:05.8

Due to privacy, we're not sharing D's name or the nature of the allegation.

1:10.1

At first, the case was proceeding normally.

1:13.0

In juvenile cases in DC there are sort of three parties other than the judge.

1:19.0

There is the juvenile probation office, there's the prosecutor, and then the defense.

1:25.4

We were approaching sentencing.

1:27.7

We all agreed that probation was the appropriate outcome.

1:31.1

And since all parties agreed on probation, you'd think D would simply get probation.

1:36.4

But then technology intervened.

1:39.6

The court had ordered that D undergo a violence risk assessment.

1:43.6

Meaning an algorithmic report.

...

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