The bill does offer some safeguards against bias and error. For example, it requires the Department of Justice to consult experts to ensure that the risk-assessment metric follows best practices. By law, inmates would be afforded an opportunity to improve their scores every few years, depending on the length of their sentence. The overall system would also be subject to review every three years or so.

But there are constitutional issues as well. Inmates would have no avenue to challenge or appeal their score, through a court or otherwise. As written, the periodic review seems to be less of an opportunity for an inmate to plead his or her case as it is an opportunity to show evidence of progress that might reclassify them from “high-risk” to “moderate,” or “moderate” to “low.” As the FPCD report says, “The bill would violate the separation of powers, the due-process clause, and the Sixth Amendment by making all determinations and assessments against the inmate unreviewable in any forum.”

These issues have been largely ignored by the bill’s bipartisan supporters. At an introductory press conference last October, a handful of the bill’s 35 co-sponsors declared it a triumph—a sign that Congress was once again capable of working together. The Obama administration expressed support soon after. The CBO touted its cost savings in April. And a flurry of press releases followed, many calling for a vote.

Congress has not taken the bill up since the Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted to send it to the floor nearly a year ago. “The question will obviously be asked: Can you get this through the Senate?” Senator Dick Durbin said at a press conference last year. “The next question is, obviously, what’s going to happen in the House?” Durbin shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said over a chorus of nervous laughter from the senators that stood beside him. “I honestly don’t know.”

The deeper question, it seems, is about the future of law-enforcement practices. The very concept of predicting crime challenges the presumption of innocence, a central tenet of the American criminal-justice system. Forecasting is a blunt tool. Even the best software incorrectly predicts future crime at a high rate.

The proposed recidivism program in the bill threatens to deny some inmates the basic protections of American criminal law. When a person’s liberty is at stake, our legal system affords him or her the highest protection. If this bill passes, or other states embrace the push toward predictive law-enforcement tools, prisoners will suffer the consequences of crimes they have not committed. They will do so based on a statistical model, rather than the decision of a judge or a jury of their peers.

* This article has been updated to clarify that although all inmates will be eligible to participate in anti-recidivism programs, the bill mandates the use of risk scores in assigning inmates to programs, and offers rewards for participation that are linked to risk scores.

This article is part of our Next America: Criminal Justice project, which is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.