Innovation is vital to the future of the criminal justice system - but so is realism.
Faced with stretched budgets, public scrutiny, and rising caseloads, how can justice leaders introduce meaningful change without overreaching? We asked three experts: How can the CJS balance the need for innovation with the reality of limited resources and risk?
Their answers reveal the importance of focusing on impact, not hype, and finding low-cost, high-value ways to move the system forward.
"The resource limitations we face means the justice system is never going to be able to handle the volume of cases currently coming into it. Neither the courts nor our prisons have, or are likely to have, the capacity required.
Innovations need to be focused on reducing the number of cases coming into the court system in the first place and on reducing the numbers being sent to prison. Investment in defence lawyers should increase the number of guilty pleas, which are a good first step towards a more rehabilitative approach, as well as saving the taxpayer money.
Sentences that focus on life skills, substance abuse and mental health issues, and training for employment, rather than imprisonment, have a good track record for reducing reoffending, and therefore reducing both the number of victims of crime, and the front-end demand on the system."
"For me, this is an ‘and’ not an ‘or’. While there is limited resources and sometimes limited appetite for risk, we have to invest some our effort in innovating. It should also be noted that not all innovation is expensive and high risk, so plenty of opportunities exist."
"The reality of limited resources is driving the CJS towards technological innovation at an unseemly speed. It is buying the hype about AI and lurching into the dark – when there is no evidence that any array of digital tools could meaningfully reduce the kinds of criminal risk that most concern the public. It will have its uses with online fraud and online child exploitation, but most forms of organised or street violence, including sexual violence, do not have their roots in a technological deficit. The evidence base we already have on desistance, rehabilitation and reintegration points in a different direction to more “tech”, and we should be thinking more about social innovation."
While innovation may seem like a luxury in a resource-constrained system, these voices remind us it doesn't have to be about chasing the newest tech, but doing better with what we already know works. By investing wisely, prioritising people over tools, and staying grounded in evidence, the UK's criminal justice system can evolve with purpose.
Hear more opinion, insight and innovation case studies from our speakers at Modernising Criminal Justice here, or book your free ticket to join them in-person next year.