A Parallel Universe?

Free Thinking : Crime and punishment medieval to modern 

Now here's a question. How can you have an hour long BBC Radio 4 radio discussion on the English criminal justice system and talk a lot about how prisons don't work, but never once mention the Probation Service? Lord Sumption mentioned pre-sentence reports, but only in the context of mental health and community service as an alternative punishment. He was completely dismissive of rehabilitation being possible in any meaningful way. He was correct in saying the public, and consequently politicians, were only interested in 'revenge', so we were highly likely to carry on spending vast sums of money on a system that makes people worse. Other guests felt people needed 'help' with issues such as drug addiction or mental health, but there seems to be a complete systemic bout of collective amnesia as far as probation is concerned, like it never existed. Maybe we've all been in a parallel universe for the past 100 years or more. Listen to it and either get angry or weep.

Crime and punishment medieval to modern 

How have attitudes to punishment changed over time, and what ideas about the rationale for punishment are circulating today? 

In Radio 4's roundtable discussion programme, Matthew Sweet and guests explore the criminal justice system through history. With: 

Stephanie Brown, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Hull and BBC / AHRC New Generation Thinker on the scheme which puts research on radio 

Scout Tzofiya Bolton, poet and broadcaster who presents on National Prison Radio, and for Radio 4 the Illuminated episode called The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag. Her poetry collection is called The Mad Art of Doing Time 

Joanna Hardy-Susskind, criminal barrister and presenter for Radio 4 of a series called You Do Not Have To Say Anything 

Stephen Shapiro, Professor of American Literature at the University of Warwick 

Jonathan Sumption, former Supreme Court judge and now Moral Maze panellist for BBC Radio 4 and author of a five-volume account of The Hundred Years War

--oo00oo--

As an aside, this got a mention (AI generated):-

In January 2026, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood expressed a desire to modernize the criminal justice system by using AI and technology to replicate the surveillance goals of Jeremy Bentham's 18th-century "Panopticon" prison design.

Here are the key details regarding her remarks:

The Vision: In an interview with Tony Blair, Mahmood stated her "ultimate vision" was to achieve, "by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his Panopticon".

"Eyes of the State": She explicitly stated that her goal is for "the eyes of the state can be on you at all times," aiming to use AI to get ahead of criminals.

AI-Powered Policing: The proposal is part of a broader, £140 million plan to overhaul policing, which includes a massive expansion of live facial recognition (LFR) technology, increasing surveillance vans from 10 to 50.

Criticism: The comments have been heavily criticized by opposition politicians and civil liberties groups, with some describing it as an "authoritarian" or "dystopian" move towards a "Big Brother" state.

Context: While the original Bentham Panopticon was a design for a prison where inmates could be observed without knowing they were being watched, Mahmood’s vision extends this concept to the use of data, AI, and facial recognition in public life.