AI to decide jail terms, just my idea

The factors taken into account when making sentencing decisions are codified and depend on a whole range of factors involved not just what crime has been convicted. It will include such factors as whether the defendent has shown any remorse for their crime, their previous history and so on.

The judge does, of course, have full view of the defendaant thrughout the trial and can reach conclusions about the defendant the way doctors used to use visual clues as an aid to diagnosis in the days when you saw a doctor, didn't just talk to them on a phone.

AI would be unable to do this.

AI is just a series of computer programmes, you can tell it to be emotional or logical as you wish, they are very clever but they are only obeying the instructions they have “learned”.

for fines, some jurisdiction have so many days' pay, rather a fixed £sum.
that seems a good idea.
unless those with no income, or undeclared income, would feel they can offend with impunity.
but then repeat offences should lead to prison.
there would need to be fine tuning, but it might be worth a trial (!) period.

Judges look at all the evidence and often take reports before issuing a sentence. We're not always privy to everything that they are.

I know that the sexual offender I recently attended the trial of won't get the punishment I'd give him and that will be fair because emotional response should have no place in the sentence issued. If I had my way I'd lock him up and throw away the key but my reasoning is based not only on what he did but also on what I think he's done in the past and what I think he'd do in the future. The judge will be far more impartial and will sentence purely on the crime he was tried for and not on potential/suspected crimes.

What about mitigation, some of which would be emotional that AI could not take into account.

Could work with plenty of time to perfect the system, I suppose.

But human checks would still have to be made.

Would appeals be allowed against what a person thought was an unfair sentence?