While I agree with Stephen Goldsmith and Jane Wiseman (“MA is MIA on criminal justice reform,’’ Opinion, July 17) that the Massachusetts bail statute needs meaningful reform, the Commonwealth should proceed cautiously prior to implementing the use of risk assessments in the pretrial process. We must first be certain that what is used is validated for our state’s population.

A good risk assessment tool in Kentucky may not accurately predict outcomes in Massachusetts. Furthermore, effective community-based programming that focuses on the core needs of underserved communities, such as employment, education, housing, and health care, must be available to address factors identified in the pretrial risk assessment process.

Finally, if risk assessments are based, in part, on unchangeable historical factors, such as number of drug arrests, the use of the tool may result in overestimating the risk for minorities, especially for African-American and Latino men. Massachusetts should not create a pretrial risk assessment process that perpetuates the implicit bias in our criminal justice system.

Yes, Massachusetts needs reform, but pretrial risk assessment may be an area where going slowly will achieve a much better result in the long run.

Randy Gioia

Deputy chief counsel

Public Defender Division

Committee for Public Counsel Services

Boston