WN TBD: Do Algorithms Make Sentencing Fairer?

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Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Around the country, states are employing algorithms to help reduce prison populations and predict recidivism. This week, we hear from a Wisconsin judge with serious reservations about the algorithm used in his state. Also: a deep dive into Virginia's risk-assessment algorithm and the surprising results of its implementation. Guests: Nicholas McNamara, judge on the circuit court of Dane County, Wisconsin. Jennifer Doleac, associate professor of economics at Texas A&M and director of the Justice Tech Lab. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Crypto doesn't sleep, so neither do we.
0:04.0	Crack-in client support is available 24-7, 365 days a year by call, chat, or email.
0:11.0	We're here for you whenever you need us.
0:14.0	Give us a shout at crackin.com forward slash support proof, not investment advice.
0:19.0	Crypto trading involves risk of loss.
0:27.0	Judge MacMere?
0:29.0	Yes, hi.
0:30.0	Hi, it's Lizzie O'Leary.
0:31.0	How are you?
0:32.0	Just fine.
0:33.0	Nice to meet you this way.
0:35.0	A few weeks ago, I called up a judge in Wisconsin named Nicholas McNamara.
0:40.0	He serves on the circuit court in Dane County, which includes the City of Madison and the state capital.
0:45.0	Before McNamara was a judge, he was a lawyer.
0:48.0	He represented plaintiffs and negligence cases, civil cases.
0:52.0	But when he became a judge in 2009, that changed.
0:55.0	His case load became almost exclusively criminal.
0:58.0	Did you have a picture in your mind of what, say, evaluating an offender or sentencing would be like before you actually took office?
1:07.0	No, I had no idea.
1:10.0	I had no.
1:14.0	Eventually, of course, he figured it out.
1:17.0	As a starting point in Wisconsin, there are three primary sentencing factors for a judge to consider.
	...

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