The other day I was reading a magazine story by my colleague Kadem Shubber, and it kind of confused me because it went against everything I understood about prosecuting a crime.

We know how it usually works. Something happens like a robbery or another offense. The police are called in.

And then the state, the police and the

prosecution's office, decides whether the suspect goes to court. But in the UK, there's

another option. Private companies can prosecute the crimes. And that means not just file for damages,

but actually put people in jail. They can walk into court and not just file for damages, but actually put people in jail.

They can walk into court and not just file a lawsuit, not just bring civil proceedings to, you know, get money from you.

They can come into court and try to criminally prosecute you and they can get, you know, the persons that they feel have wronged them, you know, sent to jail.

It turns out that the UK's prosecutor, which is known as the Crown Prosecution Service, is kind of broke.

Its budget has been slashed.

So partly to fill the gap, it's been outsourcing its work to private companies.

This concept is known as private prosecution.

It's an artifact of the past.

It's the way that in lots and lots and lots of places all prosecutions used to be done.

Today we have a modern state which has the capacity to

investigate crimes, prosecute crimes. In the past, you know, that didn't really exist. And so

really it used to be that a person, you know, it was their responsibility to seek vindication,

you know, if somebody assaulted them or committed some other criminal wrong against them.

The system is supposed to be fair because the courts actually reimburse the private prosecutors.

So it's meant to be accessible to anyone.

But in reality, you need a lot of money up front to hire these lawyers.

And Kottom is concerned about how this could play out long term.

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