Consider This Review and Revalidation of the First Step Act Risk Assessment Tool

Last month, the National Institute of Justice published a report of the First Step Act (FSA) of 2018 that mandates the development, implementation, and use of the Prisoner Assessment Tool Targeting Estimated Risk and Needs (PATTERN) of each person in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. As a risk and needs assessment system, section 3634 in Title I of the FSA requires the U.S. Department of Justice to annually review, validate, and publicly release PATTERN. This report documents the activities and accomplishments of the system in six parts including a summary of its initial development and review, estimated study samples and statistical models, a review and revalidation of the predictive and dynamic validity, an examination of racial and ethnic neutrality, and finally, a discussion and conclusion of overall findings.

View the report to learn more.