The Second Judicial District Court and the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court have implemented a new data-driven risk assessment tool known as the Public Safety Assessment, or PSA, to provide objective information for judges in determining conditions of release for criminal defendants awaiting trial.
Judges began using the PSA June 12 as part of a multi-year effort to strengthen the criminal justice system in the state’s largest county.
The PSA uses nine factors to produce two risk scores: one measuring the likelihood that an individual will commit a new crime if released pending trial and another evaluating the likelihood that he or she will fail to return for a future court hearing. The tool also flags defendants that present an elevated risk of committing a violent crime. Risk scores fall on a scale of one to six, with higher scores indicating a greater level of risk. The PSA does not require an interview with a defendant and is more up to date than the risk assessment that the courts have been using since 2015.

Even after the PSA has been implemented, judges will retain all of their authority and discretion. They will continue to make decisions on bail issues, including whether to require a bond, release defendants on their own recognizance, or impose certain restrictions.
"Implementing a cutting-edge risk assessment continues our team effort in Bernalillo County to ensure a fair and effective criminal justice system," said Second Judicial District Court Chief Judge Nan Nash. "Judges make difficult decisions each day as they follow the law in setting pretrial release conditions for defendants. The PSA will provide judges with reliable, objective information to consider in those decisions."
"In addition to identifying defendants who pose a threat to the community, the PSA will also help judges safeguard citizens' rights by preventing unfair jailing of defendants who don’t," said Metropolitan Court Chief Judge Edward L. Benavidez.
New Mexicans overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment last year to reform the state’s bail system. Voters reaffirmed the constitutional principle that people awaiting trial who are not dangerous or a flight risk will not be held in jail just because they cannot afford a money bond. Judges were also authorized to hold the most dangerous defendants in jail without bail pending trial, but that can occur only if the State requests the defendant be held and after an evidentiary hearing where the State proves that no release conditions will reasonably protect the safety of any other person or the community. A determination to hold a defendant in jail without bail does not solely rely on a defendant's risk assessment score.
"Our #1 priority is making our community safer. The Public Safety Assessment gives judges an evidence-based tool to help distinguish high-risk, potentially violent defendants from low-risk ones for critical pretrial decisions in the criminal justice system. We can achieve a win-win by increasing public safety while saving taxpayers the high costs of jailing defendants who pose little threat to the community," said Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins.
The PSA initially will be used in felony cases, and will be implemented later for misdemeanor cases.
Created by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) in partnership with leading criminal justice researchers, the PSA was developed using the largest, most diverse set of pretrial records ever assembled—1.5 million cases from approximately 300 jurisdictions across the United States. Researchers analyzed the data and isolated factors that most often exist for defendants who commit a new crime, commit a violent crime, or fail to return to court if released before trial. The factors are:
- 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;
- The person’s age at the time of arrest;
- Whether the person failed to appear at a pretrial hearing more than two years ago;
- How many times the person failed to appear at a pretrial hearing in the last two years; and
- Whether the person has previously been sentenced to incarceration.
The weight given to these factors and the formula used to calculate the risk scores is available on the LJAF website. It does not use information that is considered potentially discriminatory, such as a person’s ethnic background, income, level of education, employment status, neighborhood, or any demographic or personal information other than age.
The PSA is currently being used, or is in the process of being implemented, in approximately 35 jurisdictions across the country, including statewide in Arizona and several other states, as well as some of the nation’s largest cities. Initial results indicate that the tool is helping to protect public safety while reducing jail populations and freeing up funds for other government priorities. In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, for example, the jail population dropped nearly 20%, with no increase in crime, in the year after the PSA implementation began in the spring of 2014. In Lucas County, Ohio, the percentage of pretrial defendants released by the court on their own recognizance has nearly doubled, pretrial crime is down, and the percentage of defendants who skipped their court date has been dramatically reduced since the county began using the PSA in January 2015.
LJAF is making the PSA available for free to Bernalillo County as well as the other jurisdictions that are implementing the risk assessment tool.