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Artificial intelligence should be used to help gauge the risk of letting criminals go free or dodge prison, a government adviser has said.
Martyn Evans, chairman of the Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission, said AI would have a ‘role’ in the criminal justice system and could be used by judges making decisions about whether to jail offenders.
AI programmes could look at whether someone is safe to be released early into the community or avoid a jail term in favour of community service - despite concern over its accuracy and tendency to ‘hallucinate’ or make up wrong information.
The commission – set up by Justice Secretary Angela Constance – has proposed effectively phasing out prison sentences of up to two years and slashing the prison population by nearly half over the next decade.
Speaking to the Mail, Mr Evans, former chairman of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), said he was ‘absolutely convinced’ that AI ‘will have a role’ in risk assessment and other areas.
He said: ‘The thing is not to put all your eggs in an AI report - AI aids human insight.
‘So for criminal justice social workers having to do thousands and thousands of reports, police, procurators, it will help if you have a structured system to pull data from various sources and draft.
‘But the key for me is that AI is an aid to human reporting.
‘It will reduce the time it takes, increase some of the information available, but we know AI has faults and it can make things up.
Martyn Evans, chairman of the Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission, said AI could be used by judges making decisions about whether to jail offenders
A Scottish Government adviser thinks AI could be used as a tool in the justice system
‘It’s improving dramatically - it will be the same with judgments, frankly.
‘Judges will probably also use AI - they’re bound to; it’s difficult to predict.
‘But if we keep the human responsible for the outcome - AI can assist the human - I think it will transform routine reporting, and the professional can add their judgment and their insight and see where you end up.
‘But the AI can do some of the grind about [a criminal’s] history of offending – that’s what you want, that combination.’
AI could be used to help police wade through risk assessment procedures.
In November last year, Police Scotland said its officers had spent 1,000 hours helping prison bosses risk assess which criminals should be let out early to free up jail space.
The SNP government has freed hundreds of criminals amid an overcrowding crisis, but officers and civilian staff are having to pore over the records of those in line for release.
Top brass also warned the force was having to cope with freed criminals who were reoffending, leading the SPA to demand detailed reports on the number of crimes committed by freed inmates.
Last month the judge who presided over the Sandie Peggie employment tribunal was cleared of making up quotes using AI.
Judge Alexander Kemp faced a complaint of judicial misconduct after he was forced to reissue his controversial judgment twice to correct 12 mistakes.
They included four examples where Mr Kemp had quoted other cases in support of his conclusions, only for it to emerge that the quotes did not appear in those rulings.
This prompted claims that AI had been used to write the original ruling which were later rejected.
The Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice said last year that ‘despite this scope of [AI] use, there are no statutory regulations governing the use of AI in criminal proceedings’.
Hundreds of prisoners have been released early from Scotland's jails in the last year in an attempt to ease overcrowding
It said some English police forces are using AI for ‘predictive analytics, including to predict the likelihood of offenders reoffending, and for facial recognition or automated redaction’.
The institute said: ‘Courts [south of the Border] are using AI for case management, and (increasingly) for legal research, analysis and drafting support.
‘As of September 2025, the first English judge has disclosed his use of AI to assist in producing a judgment.
‘Defence counsel have used AI for evidence discovery and disclosure in criminal trials, including to analyse and identify key evidence and individuals of interest.’
The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has said it ‘will establish protocols for the safe deployment, operation and decommissioning of AI systems’.
It said: ‘Measures will also be put in place to detect and mitigate any “hallucinations” (incorrect or nonsensical outputs) through robust testing, validation and monitoring.
‘We will identify and assess potential risks, taking appropriate steps to mitigate and monitor these.’
Last week the Sentencing Commission published proposals which would mean criminals including violent thugs and sex offenders facing prison sentences of up to two years would be able to dodge jail.
Experts advising the SNP government say too many offenders are being locked up and fewer should be put behind bars.
They are proposing a raft of measures which would lead to thousands more prisoners being spared jail in favour of community service and electronic tags.
Other moves include allowing police to give fixed penalties to violent thugs, while offenders jailed for more than four years would be freed automatically after serving two-thirds of their sentences.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘AI will clearly transform a huge number of professions, but its use within the judicial system will require caution and clear rules.
‘There have been instances of AI “hallucination” where information, including legal precedent, has been cited and turned out to be entirely fictitious.
‘There must be safeguards in place if it is to be used, even for routine assistance.’