Sonja Starr's paper critiques the growing trend of basing criminal sentences on actuarial recidivism risk prediction instruments that include demographic and socioeconomic variables. She argues that this practice violates the Equal Protection Clause and is bad policy: an explicit embrace of otherwise-condemned discrimination, sanitized by scientific language. Evidence-Based Sentencing (EBS) seeks to help judges advance...

In 2013 PPIC released a report about bail levels and wide variation across countries discriminate against indigent and poor defendants and lead to overcrowded jails. The report examines Bail changes since 2002. From 2002 to 2012, county bail levels for some of the most frequently committed felony offenses increased by an inflation-adjusted 22 percent. A...