Public Safety Assessment (PSA) in NJ

In New Jersey, judges use the Public Safety Assessment (PSA) to help determine whether defendants should be detained pending trial or released with conditions. The PSA uses a data-driven risk assessment approach to promote fairer pretrial decision making.

What is the Public Safety Assessment?

The PSA is a pretrial risk assessment instrument developed by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to improve pretrial decision making. It uses the defendant’s criminal history, age, and current charges to generate risk scores assessing their risk of :

• Failure to appear in court
• New criminal arrest
• New violent criminal arrest

Judges weigh these objective risk scores when deciding bail and pretrial release.

How the PSA Risk Assessment Works

The PSA analyzes nine factors about the defendant to calculate risk scores :

1. Age at current arrest
2. Current violent offense charged
3. Pending charge at time of offense
4. Prior misdemeanor conviction
5. Prior felony conviction
6. Prior violent conviction
7. Prior failure to appear in past 2 years
8. Prior failure to appear older than 2 years
9. Prior sentence to incarceration

No subjective or discriminatory factors like race, income, or neighborhood are considered.

PSA Pretrial Risk Levels

Based on the risk scores, the PSA assigns defendants to risk levels :

• Level 1 - Low risk
• Level 2 - Moderate risk
• Level 3 - High risk

Judges weigh these risk levels, along with other statutory factors, when setting pretrial release conditions for each defendant.

Goals of the Public Safety Assessment

New Jersey implemented the PSA in 2017 to :

• Make pretrial decisions more objective and transparent
• Reduce reliance on monetary bail
• Improve public safety and court appearance rates through data-driven risk assessment
• Reduce unnecessary pretrial detention of low-risk defendants

The PSA aims to promote fairer, more effective pretrial decision making statewide.

PSA Implementation in New Jersey

All New Jersey counties use the PSA tool at the following stages :

• Pre-First Appearance - Police complete PSA within 12 hours of warrantless arrest
• First Appearance - Judge considers PSA risk scores in bail decision
• Post-First Appearance - Pretrial services officers verify and update PSA as needed

The PSA provides crucial information at each phase of the pretrial process.

Using the PSA for Bail and Release Decisions

While not the sole factor, the PSA risk levels guide judges in pretrial release and bail-setting decisions. Typical guidelines are :

• Level 1 - ROR or minimal monitoring
• Level 2 - ROR or standard monitoring conditions
• Level 3 - Consider additional monitoring or detention

However, judges can depart from the PSA recommendations by entering reasons on the record.

Criticisms and Concerns About the PSA

Some concerns raised about the PSA include:

• Perpetuates systemic biases by relying on factors like criminal history
• Does not measure the defendant’s dangerousness or violence risk
• Fails to sufficiently individualize recommendations
• Reduces judicial discretion and neutrality through data reliance

However, the PSA aims to counteract bias by focusing solely on empirical risk factors.

Right to Contest PSA Recommendations

While judges consider the PSA, defendants maintain full rights to :

• Review their PSA report
• Contest any incorrect facts or findings
• Present evidence for why they should be released on different conditions than recommended

The PSA does not replace judges' decision-making authority or defendants' rights.

Future Outlook for PSA Use

While not perfect, data shows the PSA improves pretrial outcomes and reduces bias. Wider adoption of risk assessment tools seems likely as states reform bail laws and practices. However, pretrial risk assessments continue to raise important questions about fairness, transparency, and relying on algorithms in criminal justice decisions.