Free Thinking : Crime and punishment medieval to modern
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
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As an aside, this got a mention (AI generated):-
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.
"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." Dostoevsky
ReplyDelete“A society is measured by the treatment of its prisoners”. Churchill
"No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones." Mandela
Probation’s absence from these conversations is revealing rather than accidental.
ReplyDeletePrisons are where punishment happens. Probation is where the long tail of responsibility lives. It is less visible, less dramatic and politically less rewarding to discuss.
Most people who go to prison come back out. At that point, the system’s success or failure depends heavily on what happens in the community. Yet community supervision rarely features in public debate unless something catastrophic occurs.
Perhaps the parallel universe is not probation. It is the idea that incarceration alone resolves crime.
And probation doesn't speak up.
DeleteProbation exists in the public imagination only twice:
ReplyDeleteBefore sentencing, when it produces a report.
After a tragedy, when it becomes a headline.
Everything in between might as well be invisible.
The Panopticon idea assumes that being watched changes behaviour.
ReplyDeleteWe all know that in practice, compliance driven by surveillance is fragile. It can suppress visible misconduct without addressing the conditions that produce it. When monitoring stops, the underlying issues remain.
The danger is mistaking observation for rehabilitation.
Word of the Day: Wankpuffin
ReplyDeleteA senior figure, typically in possession of a title, a strategy document, and an unshakeable belief that speaking at length is the same as listening.
Characterised by confident delivery, selective hearing, and a touching faith that repeating a point more slowly makes it more persuasive.
Often emerges from lengthy meetings to declare them “very constructive,” particularly when no dissenting views were permitted to survive the agenda.
Noted habitat includes briefing notes, all-staff emails, and podiums positioned safely out of conversational range.
Distinguishing features include:
• An ability to interpret silence as agreement
• A fondness for phrases such as “moving forward,” “in this space,” and “valuable feedback”
• A tendency to regard questions as minor technical obstacles rather than attempts to obtain answers
Commonly observed wherever communication flows efficiently downward but struggles heroically to travel in the opposite direction.
Known to depart interactions satisfied that reassurance has been delivered, leaving behind a faint smell of corporate optimism and a roomful of people quietly updating their CVs.
Reading this post, I was reminded of the following from a previous read, more relevant now than ever:
ReplyDelete“Similarly, if probation is unable to develop a clear and credible identity, distinct from narratives around punishment, public safety, use of technology, cost-effectiveness, or custody alternatives, and to resist the urge to overpromise on risk management, public protection, and crime control, then it may continue to face the challenge of misrepresentation.”
Probation 2026 isn’t really a “parallel universe” anymore. It is reduced, forgotten, and often airbrushed out of existence in policy and public imagination.
This is made more urgent by the Sentencing Act, and expanded technological monitoring. Technology and AI are presented as solutions to efficiency pressures, managing caseloads, reducing admin, analysing data, increasing remote supervision. Used properly, these tools can support professional judgement and reduce bureaucracy.
But if probation is to be a sentence and agency in its own right, not just a cheaper alternative to custody or an extension of surveillance, then how can it rehabilitate people and improve practice when the focus shifts to security, tagging, remote monitoring, and efficiency metrics?
AI can process information and flag patterns, but cannot build trust, hold difficult conversations, exercise moral judgement, or navigate human realities that underpin change. If efficiency and security dominate, and probation does not define what must remain human and relational, technology then replaces relationships with surveillance tool.
The question is not whether technology has a role, whether it serves probation’s rehabilitative mission, or quietly reshapes it into something else. At that point, it is no longer simply misrepresentation; it is existential if being used to serve probation’s purpose by redefining it beyond recognition.
Yes indeed - Shaping Probation’s Identity https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ec3ce97a1716758c54691b7/t/6849d80853c6e200f3f79e69/1749669898562/Shaping+Probation%E2%80%99s+Identity.pdf
DeleteAnyone who was in Probation during the last Labour government isn't, or shouldn't, be surprised they have little regard for Probation, I would suggest they have done more damage to Probation during there time than the Conservatives, despite TR, and continue in the same vein.
ReplyDeleteSo true very well known historically we had done better under the Tories. It was labour that opened the privatisation framework don't forget . I once had a decent audience with Michael Howard before TR he was home sec then and what he was saying with his legal background was more than assuring probation was part of the desired machinery. Along comes Cameron and the dopey liberals and we all got terminated one way or the other.
Delete