Tom Cardoso answered reader questions on his investigation into racial bias in Canada’s prisons

Risk assessments are meant to be an impartial guide of who can be rehabilitated and how soon, but racialized inmates routinely get the worst possible scores. They’re steeped in decades of research – and they are also fundamentally, powerfully biased against Indigenous and Black inmates, placing them in higher security classifications and assigning them worse odds of successfully re-entering society.

Indigenous and Black inmates don’t get an equal chance in federal prisons' standard tests, Globe analysis finds

How The Globe uncovered systemic bias in prisoners' risk assessments

A years-long investigation by The Globe and Mail found:

• Black men are nearly 24-per-cent more likely than white men to receive a “maximum” initial security rating, the worst possible score;
• Indigenous men are roughly 30-per-cent more likely than their white counterparts to be assigned the worst possible reintegration-potential score.

Tom Cardoso and Dakshana Bascaramurty will answer reader questions about the investigation

• Where: The Globe’s Facebook page
• Send us your questions: audience@globeandmail.com

Moderated by Dakshana Bascaramurty.