Using AI to reduce the prison population

The connection between today’s rapidly evolving technology platforms and the prison capacity crisis may not be immediately obvious. But AI is set to become a key player in the battle to cut crime and reduce prison overcrowding.

With the launch of its very first AI Action plan for Justice in July 2025, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has set out a three year strategy to embed AI across all areas of the justice system.

In his foreword, Lord James Timpson, AI lead at the Ministry talks about ‘real opportunities for AI to improve the working lives of our frontline staff and colleagues.’ That’s where AI is a game-changer. Because the people at the frontline make all the difference between someone reoffending and ending up in prison, or taking positive steps to turn their life around.

AI can save time, provide insight for decisions and identify areas of risk so that justice professionals can focus on supporting people in the community. And with AI tailored to the justice sector, we stand a very real chance of cutting down the prison population. Here’s how it’s starting to happen:

Less admin, more support

A Criminal Justice Joint Inspection report highlights difficulties in hiring, training and retaining staff in the justice sector, leaving experienced professionals with overflowing workloads.

That’s where AI can make a difference. Imagine having an admin super colleague who can take 20,000 case files, or thousands of hours of video footage, and provide a clear summary in the time it takes to boil the kettle. By doing the tasks that would take a human weeks to achieve on their own, AI can free up practitioners so they can focus on supporting people through their rehabilitation.

When you’re helping someone at risk of offending, every conversation is important. But the human memory can’t retain each tiny, yet potentially vital snippet of information from a meeting, call or interview.

AI not only transcribes meetings, it provides detailed summaries, using terminology, situations and vocabulary specific to the justice system, enabling teams to gain more insight from interactions with offenders.

This enables a justice professional to maintain the human connection and focus on the conversation without having to scribble notes or tap away on a laptop. A great example of how AI enables people to make better use of their innate human skills.

Insight from data sharing

AI can also help to get more value from data.

There are vast stores of data held by different organisations from policing, health and education and housing, which could help to identify a person at risk of imprisonment further down the line.

However, each of those organisations has its own rules and protocols governing how it shares information, which makes the process complex.

As a result, people tend to err on the side of sharing less rather than more, to avoid disclosing information which should remain confidential. The risk is that an important piece of information remains hidden.

AI thrives in rules-based environments, so tools can be trained to sift through representative datasets and comply with information-sharing protocols, to improve data sharing between public services.

With better data sharing, justice teams get the information they need to support someone at risk of becoming entrenched in anti-social or criminal behaviour. Proactive and intelligent support could prevent future harm and keep our streets safer.

Early identification of risk

People on probation are responsible for doing the hard work to change their behaviour. Just one poor choice, can set someone back. Something simple such as someone on probation missing an anger management treatment session, or moving into a household with people of concern to the police.

AI can learn from situations which have led to people offending in the past, and use this intelligence to predict potential future risk. Having early alerts enables a probation officer or social worker to check in with the individual and help them make positive choices.

Supporting an individual in this situation calls for very human skills. At a time of heavy caseloads, AI can help by assisting with triaging, so case workers can see which people need the most urgent support.

AI can also learn to prioritise according the needs of each public service. The police will have one priority whereas the probation service and the prison service will have different priorities. AI can make sure people receive support from each service in a prioritised order.

In the justice service, every decision has an impact on a person’s life, and at no point should AI take on the role of decision-maker. Instead, the technology can be developed for the sector so it provides objective, unbiased information on which humans can make their decisions.
AI can clear the way for justice professionals to use their very human skills to help people avoid a prison sentence and take their lives in a more positive direction.

To find out more, download the new white paper from NEC Software Solutions: The role of AI in the human world of Justice: https://necsws.com/digitalstudio/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/NEC-Justice-in-AI-White-Paper_FINAL.pdf