Tool to Predict Recidivism in People in Federal Prisons Could Make More Eligible for Early Release
Date:  05-02-2021

PATTERN (the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs). PATTERN, was designed to be gender-responsive and customized to the BOP population.
From Crime and Justice Research Alliance:

Passed in 2018, the First Step Act sought to address re-entry challenges for inmates in the federal prison system. The legislation called for developing an assessment tool to identify inmates for release who had the lowest likelihood of recidivism. A new study assessed how the tool was developed and is used, finding that a greater proportion of inmates could reduce their risk and become eligible for early release over time if they participated in a re-entry program and did not incur infractions. This finding has implications for efforts to reduce prison populations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study, by researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Baylor University, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and Washington State University, appears in Justice Quarterly, a publication of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

"This federal initiative represents a substantial opportunity to reverse the tide of a decades-long trend of growing rates of incarceration," according to Zachary Hamilton, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, who led the study. Continue reading >>>