Computers in criminal justice — Realising the potential: Part II: The future

Abstract

A number of trends are apparent from the current development of existing Criminal Justice computer systems (CJS). Apart from in probation, the first systems in each criminal justice agency in this country have been designed to assist with routine clerical and administrative tasks — book-keeping in the magistrates' courts, wordprocessing and finance in prisons, etc, which although effective at easing the clerical and administrative tasks have made little overall impact on the operation of criminal justice. They have not, for example, reduced the delays in the criminal justice process, or reduced the overcrowding in prisons. This is in contrast to the US, where computerisation in some courts, for example, has significantly reduced delay and has helped with the operation of sentencing guidelines to bring about a great consistency of sentencing. In Part II of his article A D Maclean looks at what the future holds as far as computers in criminal justice and concerned.