Involuntary civil commitment statutes codify the process of involuntary admission to a health care facility. Many statutes assign law enforcement to preside over custody and transportation during the commitment process, which can be traumatizing to people taken into custody. States and localities are seeking to develop alternative crisis response approaches that reduce law enforcement involvement. […]
Publication Type: Articles
The Impact of Defense Experts on Juror Perceptions of Firearms Examination Testimony
By Brandon L. Garrett, Richard E. Gutierrez, and Nicholas Scurich in Jurimetrics. Firearms examiners, who seek to link fired ammunition to a particular gun, have testified in criminal trials for over a century. Research suggests that such evidence is highly persuasive to jurors. However, no studies have examined the effect of divergent conclusions offered by […]
Primary care need and engagement by people with criminal legal involvement: Descriptive and associational analysis using retrospective data on the entire population ever detained in one southeastern U.S. county jail 2014–2020
More than 7 million people are released each year from U.S. jails or prisons, many with chronic diseases that would benefit from primary care in their returning communities. This study analyzed primary care need and utilization by all individuals ever detained in one county detention facility over a 7-year period. The authors found that having […]
Judging Firearms Evidence
Judging Firearms Evidence For over a hundred years, firearms examiners have testified that they can conclusively identify the source of a bullet or cartridge case. In recent years, however, research scientists have called into question the validity and reliability of such testimony. In this article published in the Southern California Law Review, the authors detail over […]
The Right to a Glass Box: Rethinking the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Criminal Justice
The Right to a Glass Box: Rethinking the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Criminal Justice As governments and corporations use AI more pervasively, one of the most troubling trends is that developers so often design it to be a “black box.” Designers create AI models too complex for people to understand or they conceal how […]
New Insights on Expert Opinion About Eyewitness Memory Research
New Insights on Expert Opinion About Eyewitness Memory Research In this article published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, the authors surveyed 76 experimental psychologists for their opinions on eyewitness memory phenomena. They compared these current expert opinions to expert opinions from the past several decades. They found that experts today share many of the same opinions as […]
Interpretable Algorithmic Forensics
Center Faculty Director Brandon Garrett along with Duke Computer Science Professor Cynthia Rudin wrote about the growing use of “black box” artificial intelligence (AI) in the criminal legal system, which lacks transparency in how the technology works. Garrett and Rudin describe how “glass box” AI—designed to be interpretable—can be more accurate than black box alternatives. […]
Reliance on Community Emergency Departments by People Ever Detained in Jail: Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study
This study investigated Emergency Department (ED) use by people incarcerated in jails. The authors found that frequent ED use was associated with more frequent jail bookings and with co-occurring serious mental illness and substance use disorder. By: Michele M Easter, Nicole L Schramm-Sapyta, Maria A Tackett, Isabella G Larsen, Becky Tang, Matthew A Ralph, Luong […]
Open Prosecution
This article opens the “black box” of prosecutorial discretion by tasking prosecutors with documenting detailed case-level information concerning plea bargaining. The article describes how the data-collection methodology was designed, piloted, and implemented, as well as the insights that have been generated and the wider implications for the judicial process across the country. By: Brandon L. […]