Balancing Legitimacies: Efficiency, Fairness, and the Transformation of Parole Oral Hearings

Abstract

This article examines the transformation of parole oral hearings in England and Wales following their shift to remote delivery. Drawing on qualitative interviews and hearing transcripts, it explores how remote hearings affect the legitimacy of parole, focusing on tensions between efficiency, fairness, and participation. Using a framework of legitimacy underpinned by Suchman’s concept of procedural, consequential and structural legitimacy, the article analyses how institutional efforts to reduce delay can simultaneously erode the fairness-based underpinnings of oral hearings. It argues that the rapid uptake of technology in response to crisis can produce lasting institutional change, often without sustained scrutiny or re-legitimation.