11/04/2022
Police Oracle
Work with offenders on an important new report
The Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) and the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) have published a three-part report, “Towards Race Equality”, that highlights the routine discrimination experienced by many minoritised women in prison.
The CJA is a charitable network of 170 organisations all working towards a fairer and more effective criminal justice system. Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) which exist for every prison and immigration removal centre.
IMBs are made up of ordinary members of the public who are independent, unpaid and make an average of 3-4 visits to their local institution per month. Their role is to monitor the day-to-day life in their local prison and ensure the proper standards of care and decency are maintained. Members have unrestricted access to their local prison at any time and can talk to any prisoner or detainee they wish to, out of sight and hearing of a members of staff if necessary.
The report is based on surveys with over 260 Black, Asian. minority ethnic and foreign women in prison, as well as equality staff working in prisons, and IMB chairs and members with a specialist interest in equality outcomes.
A third of women who responded said their treatment by staff was poor or very poor; with over 40% of respondents saying they had experienced discrimination which included getting less access to employment within the prison. Black women recorded particularly negative experiences. Many respondents had little confidence in the system for reporting discrimination, in procedural fairness, or in staff understanding of cultural needs.
The report's main findings are set out below accompanied by quotes from some of the women surveyed:
Respondents detailed distressing incidents of racism and direct discrimination, which in some cases involved prison staff. This included the use of racist language, name calling, racial tropes and stereotyping.
‘One member of staff said “you look like the 3 wise monkeys” when sitting with 2 black friends.’
‘When on remand – she [member of staff] told me I was talking gangster on the wing.’
Respondents highlighted key areas where they felt they had experienced indirect discrimination and unfair treatment, including adjudications, and access to employment within the prison, and Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL).
‘There is a lot of discrimination, favouritism and racial bias. (Not direct poor treatment.)’
The experiences of Black individuals were particularly bad, especially regarding discriminatory incidents, distrust in the prison system, access to employment within the prison, and access to appropriate skin and hair care products.
Most responses indicate that staff equality and diversity training is inadequate and delivered inconsistently across the estate.
‘They don’t understand or even try to understand and accept our culture’
Many respondents were either unaware of the discrimination incident reporting form (DIRF) process or were fearful of submitting DIRFs in case of possible reprisals.
‘There is never no punishment when someone says racial things, it is then dismissed …so it’s a waste of time.’
The survey also found variable access for foreign national prisoners whose first language is not English, who often had to use hand gestures and rely on other prisoners to provide ad hoc translation and interpretation support.
The report did also record some examples of positive initiatives, such as themed cuisine to mark special events and religious celebrations.
Recommendations
The report concludes by making 13 recommendations for the Prison Service and the Ministry of Justice, to provide or improve: