Joining up Justice with Real World Solutions: Insights Report

By Oli Hutt, Head of Analytics | Greg O’Meara, Analyst

Rising demand and squeezed budgets over the past decade have left the criminal justice system (CJS) struggling to manage day-to-day. Changes to address a specific issue in one agency cascade unintentional negative consequences, creating friction elsewhere which slows cases and reduces the likelihood of successful outcomes. Better modeling of the systemic impact of individual agency choices is required to prevent the system from lurching with every change. The lack of a joined-up accountability structure severely hinders the efficacy of the CJS as a whole. Whilst individual agencies have a common aim, their objectives and resources are often unaligned or even in direct conflict. This impacts on victims, witnesses, and defendants who experience a highly fragmented, frustrating, and stressful process. Cooperation is held back by a lack of basic data sharing. Better standardization and coordination is needed on basics such as data format, transfer, frequency, etc.) and co-design of systems to enable more joined-up working. A duty to share data should be considered as a way to drive greater cooperation across the CJS. Practitioners from across the CJS are clear on what needs to change to make this happen. However, the willingness of agencies to work together is limited- in part because they lack the resources required. There are success stories, but these are typically localized and not embedded. Yet there is cause for hope. Better use of technology can enable better decision-making and improve efficiency and effectiveness; our recommendations are focused on these objectives. Relatively minor investment would deliver targeted solutions e.g.- digital devices in prisons and courts, redaction tools for police and data sharing agreements. By reducing data entry and data error, these would free up police and prison officer time and remove delays in data sharing across the CJS. However, these require the central government to invest to realize the systemic benefit they could deliver. Technology also offers relief to recruitment and morale issues by automating standard processes that are inconsistently applied and time-consuming to learn, and by removing the burden on staff often required to work outside their skill set. Agencies should recruit and retain specialist (particularly technical) staff rather than relying on current staff to cover these needs inefficiently. Longer-term, more fundamental, systemic change is required, including a single accountability structure for the entire CJS; a victim/witness-centric design that maximizes engagement throughout the process and leads to swift and fair outcomes for all through system-wide case management and data sharing. These longer-term requirements should not stop the government from progressing the changes outlined above, and other recommendations that can be implemented immediately at a relatively low cost. The greatest risk facing the criminal justice system is inaction

London: Crest Advisory, 2022. 42p.