Issued by: Ministry of Justice

Prison officers will use artificial intelligence (AI) to stop violence before it breaks out under new plans set out by the Lord Chancellor today (31 July).

• Clampdown on violence in prisons as AI helps to identify dangerous prisoners and bring them under tight supervision

• AI will also be used to uncover secret messages sent by prisoners and stop weapons or contraband getting into prisons

• Ministry of Justice’s AI Action Plan sets out how tech will cut reoffending and make streets safe as part of Plan for Change

Under the Ministry of Justice’s AI Action Plan artificial intelligence predicts the risk an offender could pose and informs decisions to put dangerous prisoners under tighter supervision to cut crime and deliver swifter justice for victims. This will help to cut reoffending and make our streets safe, part of the Plan for Change.

AI will be used across prisons, probation and courts to better track offenders and assess the risk they pose with tools that can predict violence behind bars, uncover secret messages sent by prisoners and connect offender records across different systems.

The AI violence predictor analyses different factors such as a prisoner’s age and previous involvement in violent incidents while in custody. This will help prison officers assess threat levels on wings and intervene or move prisoners before violence escalates.

Another AI tool will be able to digitally scan the contents of mobile phones seized from prisoners to rapidly flag messages that could provide intelligence on potential crimes being committed behind bars, such as secret code words.

This will allow staff to discover potential threats of violence to other inmates or prison officers as well as plans to escape and smuggle in weapons or contraband.

These phones – often used for gang activity, drug trafficking and intimidation – are a major source of violence in prisons.

This technology, which uses AI-driven language analysis, has already been trialled across the prison estate and has analysed over 8.6 million messages from 33,000 seized phones.

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, said:

"Artificial intelligence will transform the justice system. We are embracing its full potential as part of our Plan for Change.

"These tools are already fighting violence in prisons, tracking offenders, and releasing our staff to focus on what they do best: cutting crime and making our streets safer."

The AI Action Plan also outlines how the department will create a single digital ID for all offenders with AI helping to link separate records across courts, prisons and probation for the first time.

This will match records that may never be linked through old search systems due to slight typos or missing words, meaning greater monitoring and more effective sentencing.

In the Probation Service, AI pilots have already shown a 50% reduction in note-taking time, allowing officers to focus on risk management, monitoring and face-to-face meetings with offenders.

Building on this success, the tool will be rolled out to all probation officers, and potentially in prisons and courts too.

The AI Action Plan also sets out how technology can ease pressure on courts and improve services for the public. This includes a digital assistant is being developed to help families resolve child arrangement disputes outside of court.

Alexander Iosad, Director of Government Innovation Policy at the Tony Blair Institute, said:

"This Action Plan shows exactly the kind of ambition we need across government to embrace AI for a genuine renewal of our public services. If implemented well and at pace, these technologies won’t just ease the pressure on our prisons but also help offenders receive the personalised support they need for effective rehabilitation, making streets safer, and ensuring that victims facing incredibly difficult moments get the justice they deserve. This is what modern, data-driven public service reform to deliver real change for citizens should look like."

Earlier this year, the Lord Chancellor set out her vision for the Probation Service, which included a £8 million pledge to introduce new technology to help risk assess offenders and cut back on admin, increasing focus on those offenders who pose the greatest risk to the public.

In the Spending Review, the Government announced that the Probation Service will receive up to £700 million, an almost 45% increase in funding. This new funding will mean tens of thousands more offenders can be tagged and monitored in the community.

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