The Rise and Fall of AI and Algorithms in American Criminal Justice - Lessons for Canada

The challenge of reconciling the potential risks and benefits of AI and algorithms is summed up concisely in the Preamble to the Toronto Declaration on AI, a 2018 statement prepared by AccessNow, an international organization that promotes understanding of human rights in the use of technology.11 The Preamble reads, in part, As machine learning systems advance in capability and increase in use, we. [...] The “Breathtaking” Growth of Pretrial Risk Assessments As noted in the Introduction, the use of pretrial algorithmic risk assessments has expanded rapidly across the United States to the point where these systems are probably the most widely implemented algorithmic tools in use in criminal proceedings in the world. [...] Rather, the factors used by the PSA are: • The person’s age at the time of arrest; • Whether the current offense is violent; • Whether the person had a pending charge at the time of the current offense; • Whether the person has a prior misdemeanor conviction; • Whether the person has a prior felony conviction; • Whether the person has prior convictions for violent crimes; • Whether the person has. [...] Due Process, Public Participation and Law Reform Many of the issues discussed so far highlight the importance of understanding and discussing the significant data issues and choices inherent in the design, development and deployment of these systems. [...] This includes standards over scoring systems; the right to inspect, correct, and dispute inaccurate data; the right to know the source of data; the right to public disclosure and oversight of data; and the creation of an audit trail for all algorithmic decisions or recommendations.