By Carolyn McKay and Kristin Macintosh
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, criminal justice has become increasingly digitalised. Specifically, the accelerating use of audio visual links and remote access technologies means that incarcerated individuals are more frequently required to use these technologies from prison to appear in remote courtrooms and to hold legal conferences with their distant lawyers. Concerns have been raised that these arrangements may compromise access to justice.
As part of the ARC study - ‘The Digital Criminal Justice Project’ - this article draws on selected Australian criminal cases to reveal the inclusionary and exclusionary aspects of digital transformation on access to justice for vulnerable incarcerated individuals. Applying content analysis and ‘digital vulnerability’, we find digitalisation poses potential barriers to justice, particularly in the preparation of a defence or appeal from a carceral situation. However, we also find how digitalisation can often positively facilitate the effective participation of vulnerable people in remote court proceedings. On this basis, we argue that courts and lawyers must be vigilant regarding the use of audio visual links by vulnerable incarcerated individuals and aware of when technologies can mitigate or exacerbate digital vulnerability.