Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has created extensive problems for the criminal justice system and those who become embroiled with it. The lockdown in 2020 resulted in numerous courts having to shut down (see also Gill, Chapter 2). Trials in those that remained open needed more space to comply with social distancing measures with the result that the number of trials that courthouses were capable of accommodating reduced significantly. By June 2020, the backlog of Crown Court trials stood at 41,000, and it was recently announced that some criminal trials are now being postponed until 2023. Additional backlogs and delays are continuing to build up by the hour and will undoubtedly rise to an intolerable level if too much court business is adjourned.

Problems with organizing hearings is only the tip of an iceberg. Ten thousand people, or 11 per cent of the prison population are remanded in custody awaiting trial (65 per cent) or waiting to be sentenced (35 per cent). This means that the majority of those waiting for justice have not even been convicted of the crime with which they are charged. The situation will undoubtedly lead to an increased sense of uncertainty and intense stress for accused persons and their families at a time when public health officials are already concerned about the nation's mental health. The fact that prisons and remand centres are often located at a distance from prisoners’ homes and that many of them are not accepting visitors during the pandemic will leave those on remand feeling even more isolated than usual. There has rarely been such strong evidence that justice delayed is justice denied.

This emergency is much more likely to impact negatively on the poor. Poverty has long been a reliable predictor of citizens’ involvement with the criminal justice system, though the relationship between poverty, disadvantage and crime is a convoluted one. It relies on a complex causal dynamic involving income poverty, increased stress, strained family relationships, unstable childhood development and perceptions of relative poverty in engendering discord. Many people from disadvantaged backgrounds never have reason to be involved with the criminal justice system, but those from poor and disadvantaged families are much more likely to be charged, tried and go to prison than those from the middle classes.