Examining Adherence to the Public Safety Assessment and Release Conditions Matrix on Individual Case and System Outcomes

Research on actuarial risk assessments suggests that they are better predictors of future behavior and more objective than clinical or professional judgment alone. Yet, research on the impact of pretrial release policies based on a risk assessment on a variety of outcomes, including the release and detention decision, release rates, length of stay during the pretrial period, case disposition court appearance, and pretrial arrests, is just beginning. When jurisdictions adopt the Public Safety Assessment (PSA), one of the initial steps is to develop a Release Conditions Matrix (RCM) to inform release decision-making. The current study explores how adherence to the pretrial services release recommendation influences individual, case, and pretrial outcomes within a large southeastern county.