A VIRTUAL PRISONER

As more inmates are released from a prison system bursting at the seams, Zoe Beaty looks at new proposals to keep tabs on offenders in their own homes under the watchful eye of AI

- Zoe Beaty

What does criminal punishment look like in 2024? Under new plans for low-level criminals, it could be a lot different to the boxy, bare prison cells we’re accustomed to in the UK. This week it was announced that, in order to address the prisons crisis, the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood has launched a review of sentencing with the aim to reduce the demand for prison places, and “reshape and redesign what punishment outside of a prison looks like”.

The solution? House arrest – but make it modern.

The review comes at a crucial time in the thick of rapidly rising demand for prison places currently at a rate of about 4,500 prisoners each year and overcrowding has already pushed jails to “the point of collapse”, the government said in July.

Labour’s early release scheme, which allows criminals to serve just 40 per cent of their fixed-term sentences, rather than 50 per cent, saw around 1,700 prisoners released on 10 September; an additional 1,000 were expected to leave prison this week as the plans were extended to those serving sentences of five years or more.

It is, undoubtedly, a mess. Prison and probation are expensive and under-resourced to the point that it’s essentially incapable of doing the job it’s meant to – making the country safer. Some research shows that rehabilitation in prison might actually increase the likelihood of reoffending, and at a cost of £80,000 per prisoner, that is a big risk to take.

Now, alongside the overhaul of sentencing guidelines, led by the former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke, artificial intelligence and emerging technology will attempt to steer prison and probation services across England and Wales into a new era.