In 2014, Action for Race Equality supported the Young Review – a deep dive into the experiences of young Black and Muslim men in the Criminal Justice System. Disturbingly, many of our findings still hold true today.
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This week, the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB) published its annual report for 2024. The report paints a picture of continuing and often worsening racial disparities in the prison system.
High levels of use of force deployed disproportionately against Black and Muslim people in prison, as well as a failing discrimination reporting system, and ineffective consistent adoption of equity initiatives were all highlighted by the IMB as areas of key concern.
The poor experiences of Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people in adult prisons, young offender institutions (YOIs), and immigration detention centres is an urgent and relenting issue made only more complex against the backdrop of the prison capacity crisis, unpredictable regimes, high staff turnover, and complex mental health and special educational needs.
Use of Force
The IMB found that use of force was frequently disproportionately used against Black and Muslim prisoners, and scrutiny around use of force was ‘poor’, with disproportionality considered in use of force review meetings with little to no impact on driving down disproportionate use. In Birmingham prison, cultural awareness training had been pursued but failed to impact on the over-representation.
Staff inexperience was a contributing factor in the disproportionate use of force recorded at several prisons, meaning that de-escalation was poor and procedure such as turning on body worn video, record-keeping, and monitoring were not carried out at a good standard. Poor prison conditions were also noted as an issue contributing to the disproportionate use of force against Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people, who were more likely to be placed in ‘worse’ wings.
In one prison, Altcourse, staff were considerably more experienced and told the IMB that their reliance on use of force was lower because of this – highlighting the urgent need for capable and experienced prison staff.
Young Offender Institutions (YOI)
The ongoing disproportionality in use of force across prisons was noted as particularly concerning given the recent announcement that PAVA will be introduced into the youth custodial estate – where staff turnover is even higher and the population is disproportionately Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage.
Issues including high levels of self-harm and violence, minimal regime including little time spent outside of cells, and poor access to education are concerning issues re-identified by the IMB in YOIs.
Discrimination Incident Reporting Forms
Use of Discrimination Incident Reporting Forms (DIRFs) remained high in several YOIs, with the IMB noting a lack of governance around equity and diversity as an ongoing issue undermining the drive to end racial disproportionalities.
In adult prisons, the DIRFs system was less trusted, with many people in prison concerned about negative consequences from using the system. DIRFs are also not made available for all people in prison, and scrutiny around them remains inconsistent.
Immigration detention centres
An increasing number of immigration detention centres are being used to ease the prison capacity crisis under Operation Safeguard. The IMB noted that detention centres have not handled this policy change well, with environments becoming increasingly unsafe. This underpins widespread distress and high levels of self-harm and suicide attempts.
What is next?
Persistent issues of racial disproportionality and discrimination are deeply concerning, especially given the extensive work carried out under the HMPPS Race Action Programme that sought to tackle many of the issues outlined by the IMB. Lack of strong scrutiny, inexperienced staff, and failure to identify instances of systemic racism are contributing to the ongoing issues within prisons.
Change which values creating prisons free from violence and racism is necessary to ending the disproportionately negative experiences of Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people in prison.
Author
Meka Beresford
Head of Policy
