Skip to main content Skip to navigation
CAS in the Media Arts and Sciences Media Headlines

New risk assessment tool will let computer judge inmates

Many people arrested in Spokane County wind up in jail simply because they can’t afford to pay bond, leaving little or no room for serious criminal offenders.

Zachary Hamilton
Hamilton

So officials are testing a new tool created by Zachary Hamilton, Washington State University assistant professor of criminal justice, to help determine who needs to be detained to keep the community safe versus those who can be safely released into the community and supervised by pretrial services.

The tool, called SAFER, applies an algorithm to calculate several factors and generate a score for judges to tell whether an individual is at low, moderate, or high risk to commit a crime if released from jail.

Now being used six times a day in county court, SAFER was paid for as part of a $1.75 million MacArthur Foundation grant.

Find out more

KHQ

The Spokesman-Review

WSU research highlights deforestation threat to jaguars

Dan Thornton

Accelerating deforestation of jaguar habitat, especially in corridors connecting conservation areas, threatens the long-term survival of the iconic predator, according to new research by Dan Thornton, an assistant professor in the Washington State University School of the Environment.

He and colleague Peter Olsoy, a WSU environmental sciences doctoral student, suggest conservation groups and scientists focus efforts on working with local communities and elected officials to protect these vital forest corridors.

Find out more

WSU News

Through history, fake news has often accompanied populist politics

“Fake news isn’t new,” said Cornell Clayton, a political science professor at Washington State University. “It often accompanies populist revival eras in politics. These things go hand in hand.”

Clayton, who directs WSU’s Thomas S. Foley Institute of Public Policy and Public Service, said fake news explodes in popularity in times of political polarization and distrust of “the establishment” – mainstream media included.

Stopping the spread of fake news and conspiracy theories is a unique challenge in the digital age. And it’s difficult to measure how bad information influences democratic processes like a presidential election.

Find out more

The Spokesman-Review

North West Montana Band Festival educates student musicians

Hamilton High School hosted the North West Montana Band Festival with bands from Hamilton, Stevensville, Polson, and Libby, on Jan. 30 and 31.

Troy Bennefield
Bennefield
Danh Pham
Pham

Guest directors Danh Pahm and Troy Bennefield, from the Washington State University School of Music, and Stephen Versaevel adjudicated the bands on Monday. The bands then combined into two bands and a percussion ensemble rehearsing music and studying musical concepts. The bands performed a Festival Gala Concert Tuesday evening in the Hamilton High School Performing Arts Center.

The three guest directors guided the student learning at the festival.

Danh Pham is an assistant professor of music and director of bands at WSU, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and serves as the coordinator of instrumental music education within the School of Music and as liaison to the College of Education.

Troy Bennefield is the associate director of bands and director of athletic bands at WSU, where he manages all aspects of the WSU athletic band program, conducts the Symphonic Band, and assists the director of bands with the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, and graduate conducting.

Find out more

Rivalli Republic

What We Know (and Don’t Know) About Immigrants and Violent Crime

Trump demanded reports on immigrants and crime. Existing research shows that they are not nearly the threat the president has made them out to be.
Clayton Mosher
Mosher

Even if the scientific data refutes Trump’s claims about immigrants, weekly lists and quarterly reports on crimes committed by immigrants will keep the dubious association alive in the public’s mind. Clayton Mosher, professor of criminology at Washington State University and author of The Mismeasure of Crime, has warned that highlighting such data may fuel the arguments of nativists, who have already proven their willingness to cherry-pick information.

“If you’re measuring it in a problematic way, anything you derive from those data is going to be completely misleading, and in this case, potentially dangerous as well,” Mosher said.

Immigrants have committed violent crimes, and will continue to do so. But all the available research shows that claims that they pose a special threat are, in a word, bogus. There is, though, strong evidence that anti-immigrant rhetoric does pose a threat — to immigrants themselves.

Find out more

The Trace