14 PRISONERS FROM MINORITY
ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS GROUPS
349. The graph below compares the prison population
by ethnic group with that of the adult population of England and
Wales by ethnic group as at 28 February 2003. At the end of February
2003, one in four of the prison population—17,762 prisoners—belonged
to a minority ethnic group. This compares to one in 11 in the
general population. More than a third (6,623) were foreign nationals.
350. Among British nationals belonging to a minority
ethnic group, 12% were black and 3% South Asian. Black prisoners
are significantly over-represented in the prison system. In November
2003, black men constituted around 15% of the male prison population.
Black men make up an even larger disproportion of the remand population
than of the sentenced offender population.
Source: Prison Population Brief, November 2003, Home
Office
351. The most recent religious statistics were published
in 2000. At that time, the largest group of prisoners were Anglicans,
who comprised 39% of the prison population. Next in size was the
group with no religion (32%), followed by Roman Catholics at 17%
and Muslims at 7% of the prison population (the number of Muslims
in prison doubled between 1993 and 2000). Buddhists, Hindus and
Sikhs each accounted for around half of one percent of the prison
population.[284]
352. Once arrested, black people are more likely
to be remanded in custody than other offenders charged with similar
offences and more likely to be given longer sentences than either
white or Asian prisoners.[285]
Additionally, once in prison, black people are more likely to
be found guilty of disciplinary offences: in Part 2 of its Report
on Racial Equality in Prisons (December 2003),[286]
the Commission for Racial Equality noted that prison statistics
clearly suggest a consistent over-representation of black male
prisoners in the prison disciplinary system and disproportionate
numbers of black prisoners on the basic level of the Incentives
and Earned Privilege schemes at certain establishments, such as
HMP Brixton and YOI Feltham. The Commission reports that although
prisons have been required since 1991 to monitor the area of disciplinary
charges, they have failed to do so effectively and even where
records indicated a consistent pattern of apparent discrimination,
prisons have largely failed to investigate their causes or take
any action.
353. We are deeply concerned at the over-representation
of minority ethnic groups, particularly black men, across the
criminal justice system, and by suggestions that black prisoners
are more likely to be found guilty of disciplinary offences and
less likely to have access to constructive activities in prison.[287]
The absence of comprehensive ethnic and religious monitoring across
the prison estate is much to be regretted, as is the resultant
lack of empirical data regarding the treatment of minority ethnic
and religious groups within the prison system. We recommend that
mechanisms be put in place for the systematic collation and comparison
of data relating to the ethnic and religious backgrounds of prisoners
(i) on disciplinary charges, (ii) in segregation, (iii) on basic
regimes, and (iv) allocated the most basic prison work opportunities.
This data is important to the development of prison diversity
policies at the national, regional and local levels. It is also
essential as a means of alerting the Prison Service to practices
and procedures which may be directly or indirectly discriminatory
by disproportionately adversely affecting minority ethnic prisoners.
354. Prison Service Order 2800 makes it mandatory
for every prison establishment to establish a Race Relations Management
Team.[288] In its National
Action Plan, the Government commits itself to "mainstream
all aspects of diversity to ensure that the needs of particular
groups are properly addressed."[289]
The specific needs of minority ethnic and religious groups may
be quite different from the needs of white prisoners, for complex
social reasons, as the Commission for Racial Equality points out
in its report on Racial Equality in Prisons, published
in December 2003:
"To a significant degree, the high incarceration
rate for the black group reflects greater police attention driven
by ethnic identity rather than social circumstances… In society
at large, it is the suspect's blackness which attracts primary
police attention, as opposed to the manifestations of aspects
of social exclusion … which attracts police attention to
particular individuals in the white group. It would, therefore,
be particularly wrong to see the black group in prison as necessarily
reflecting the social indices of a socially excluded group as
compared to a socially included white group. In fact, it is the
white group of prisoners who more predominantly reflect the socially
excluded sections of the white population in society at large,
and therefore carry into prison some of the consequential problems
such as high rates of illiteracy.
The black male group in prison experiences an
inversion of some of the social experiences imposed on the black
group outside prison … inside it is less likely than the
white group to fail to cope mentally with imprisonment and much
less likely to commit suicide. It is more likely to want to be
educated and trained and less likely to try to escape, though
it faces a higher rate of guilty verdicts in disciplinary hearings."[290]
355. In 2002 the Government set up a Criminal Justice
System Race Unit to:
"to get beneath the surface of race issues
in the justice system. It will work across all criminal justice
departments and agencies, looking at the system as a whole, and
identifying what works and actively managing change."[291]
The Unit has not yet looked in detail at the experience
of prisoners from minority ethnic groups.
356. We welcome the Government's commitment in
its National Action Plan to 'mainstream' diversity. However, we
consider that that specific measures with set timetables are required
to address the problems identified by the Commission for Racial
Equality in its recent report on racial equality in prisons. We
recommend that, in the short term, the Government's Criminal Justice
System Race Unit should conduct an internal audit of the Prison
Service's rehabilitation interventions to assess whether they
comply with the needs of minority ethnic and religious groups.
A revised version of the National Action Plan should contain specific
action points identified by the audit as necessary to remedy deficiencies
in the current provision of rehabilitation interventions to minority
ethnic and religious prisoners, together with targets for implementation
and mechanisms for ongoing monitoring.
284 National Statistics Office, Religion in Prisons
1999 and 2000, England and Wales (2001) Back
285
Prison Reform Trust Factfile, July 2004 Back
286
The CRE Report was published further to a formal investigation
by the Commission for Racial Equality, under sections 48-52 of
the Race Relations Act 1976, into HM Prison Service of England
and Wales. Back
287
Social Exclusion Unit report, Reducing re-offending by ex-prisoners
(2002) and CRE report , Racial Equality in Prisons (2003) Back
288
Issued in 1997 and revised in part in 2000 Back
289
National Action Plan, p 5 Back
290
CRE, Racial Equality in Prisons (2003), p 28 Back
291
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs3/raceandthecjs.html Back
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