Our first RCT studying the Public Safety Assessment (“PSA”), the pre-disposition release assessment tool developed by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, is well underway in Dane County, WI.
Madison is far from the only place the PSA currently is in use; this recent piece from the Planet Money podcast highlights the implementation of the PSA in New Jersey.
The PSA is up and running in New Jersey, as well as the entire State of Kentucky and scattered counties from Santa Cruz, CA to Volusia, FL. Although the PSA has been scientifically validated, only the results from our Dane County RCT—and, hopefully, upcoming trials in other locations—will give us a good sense of how well the PSA really works for a given jurisdiction.
If you have some time on your commute (or whenever you listen to the news), take a listen. It’s about twenty minutes long, and it will give you a great sense of what we’re studying in the PSA trials. Prefer to read the story? The full transcript is also available online.