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Data Entry Errors Resulted In Improper Sentences

Posted by kdawson on from the month-here-a-month-there dept.

shrik writes "Slate has a look at the efforts of Emily Owens, in 2005 a Ph.D student in economics at the University of Maryland, who 'came across thousands of inconsistencies and errors in the sentencing recommendations provided to judges' by the Maryland State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy. Quoting: 'The sentencing guidelines for judges were based on a work-sheet [PDF] that "graded the severity of a convict's crime and his risk to society", ostensibly to make the rulings meted out more objective in nature. But on carefully studying her data, Owens noticed something wasn't adding up — the system seemed to be producing 1 error in every ten trials. She also realized that this "recommendation system" actually mattered: crimes and criminals analyzed to be quite similar were resulting in systematically different punishments correlated with the work-sheet.' The source of these discrepancies was ultimately found to be a simple, but very significant, PEBKAC: 'More than 90 percent of errors resulted from the person completing the work sheet [usually the DA, but signed off by the defense attorney] entering the figure from a cell next to the correct one. ... The remaining errors came mostly from incorrect choice of criminal statute in calculating the offense score and from a handful of math errors (in operations that were literally as simple as adding two plus two).' Timo Elliott's BI Questions Blog lists the morals of the story."

6 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. PEBKAC by soundhack · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wow, I have to turn in my geek card, I didn't know what this meant until I googled it.

    Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair

    1. Re:PEBKAC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Err, the entire POINT of that specific acronym is to 'impede communication'. It was an inside joke made such that an outside user was unlikely to pick up on the fact that it was an insult.

  2. Legal Malpractice by Dr.+Grabow · · Score: 5, Informative

    IAAL and it is legal malpractice to not double-check the prosecution's sentencing algorithm and recommendations to the judge ...

    1. Re:Legal Malpractice by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Informative

      But what happens if in ten years, somebody's great grandson comes by with a deed on the northern half of my land? Do I get my lawyer fees back?

      Basically, strange things happen. I work in a county government where we handle property tax billing, and essentially the situation you describe results in a disputed property record being created.

      Generally we have parcel ID numbers to distinguish unique tracks of land. These are 10 digit numbers. When a piece of land becomes disputed though a letter will be added behind - so 1001003832A and 1001003832B for example. These are physically the same pieces of land that will be listed under the original ownership and the disputed ownership. Legally, until something changes, BOTH parties own the land. Both are charged property taxes, and if either fails to pay then they forfeit their stake in the land to the county (which interestingly enough, can then be auctioned at the tax sale as a stake in the land even though there is already another owner).

      What USUALLY happens is that one or the other owner will either cave and sell their share to the other owner, resulting in a single ownership again, or one of them will just eventually stop paying the taxes and the current owner will purchase back that stake in the land at auction (since the fact that the propery is disputed will hamper the auction value a lot anyways).

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    2. Re:Legal Malpractice by jhfry · · Score: 2, Informative

      It is indeed double dipping... and it's brilliant.

      It's like when you and a sibling or friend fought over a toy and your parents ripped it in half and gave you each a piece. No one wins unless one side relents. That's justice!

      --
      Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
  3. Re:Justice is only available to the rich by Sinical · · Score: 2, Informative

    I would agree that this is pretty close to the truth: innocent rich people can provide a much better defense than innocent poor people who typically cut deals. Due to the volume pressures (mostly due to incredibly minor drug offenses clogging up the courts), judges typically apply a "trial tax" where if you don't plead out, you get hit with a stiffer sentence (for taking up more of his time and lowering his "clearance rate"). Poor people who have to rely on overworked public defenders (who are also part of the court system more than private lawyers and also feel the volume pressures) are less likely to want to chance it.

    I would encourage you to read Courtroom 302 which is a look at a year in a Chicago Superior court. It's pretty disheartening. :(