How the prison industrial complex disproportionately harms minorities
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TheBlack Lives Matter movement and ensuing global protests surrounding police brutality have brought ever-greater attention on the justice system itself. Why is the criminal justice system so tilted against people from minorities?
Reports show that people of minority ethnic backgrounds in the UK are more likely to be incarcerated. For example, Black people account for 3 per cent of the UK population yet they make up 12 per cent of people in prison. The Lammy review highlighted that 26 per cent of the prison population — 22,683 people — are from minority ethnic groups and went on to suggest that those of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds were statistically more likely to receive a custodial sentence.
The data similarly revealed that Black people were 53 per cent more likely to be sent to prison for an indictable offence at the Crown Court. A 2016 parliamentary report provided by the Ministry of Justice pointed to similar discrepancies in the justice system. For example, the report found that police were 28 times more likely to use “Section 60” stop-and-search powers against black people when compared to white people; in that year alone, 59 per cent of people stopped under Section 60 by London’s Metropolitan Police Service were either Black British or Asian British.
It went on to suggest that people of BAME backgrounds were more likely than white offenders to be sentenced for driving offences, public order or weapon possession offences, shoplifting, and drugs offences. One of the more unreasonable factors for these discrepancies was the joint doctrine, where people in BAME communities were arrested and convicted of offences if they were deemed to encourage a criminal act, or seen to have had knowledge of it. That is, they were more likely to be found guilty by association.
Making matters much more complex is the fact that, as it currently stands, the prison system incentivises incarceration. The UK is increasingly imitating the US’s prison industrial complex (PIC) in terms of mass incarceration with corporate interests. The PIC refers to the industry surrounding the prison system and how this drives profit and boosts the economy. This includes the probation service, police officers, courts, and any companies profiting from the transport, hospitality and technology within prison facilities and prison labour itself — rife with exploitation. The UK was the first European country to open private, for-profit prisons and currently has the most privatised prison system in Europe. Almost 10,000 people — 11.6 per cent of the total prison population — are held in private prisons across the UK.
In a disturbing post that recently appeared on the Ministry of Justice’s Twitter profile, the UK government promoted its £2.5 billion plan to build four new prisons. These are intended to provide 10,000 additional prison places, to “boost rehabilitation and support the economy”. This provides a concerning conflict of interest. The tweet suggests the government views these prisons as business opportunities: that there would be a commercial incentive to fill these facilities.
Over three decades there has been a vast increase in private prisons and immigration removal centres in particular. While some industries are expecting a difficult financial year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the PIC is thriving. According to Corporate Watch, of the eight long-term immigration detention centres in the UK, seven are run by four private companies, which are making healthy profits. Simultaneously, the treatment and conditions of those held in detention can often have tragic consequences, as was the case with Prince Fosu.
The current system has the potential to maintain a perpetual cycle. The level of violence in British prisons is appalling and sexual assault, rape, harassment, and physical violence are rife. Prisoners lose their connection to the outside world with their familial relations or social ties weakened, making it harder for them to return to normal life on release. The result is a painful downward spiral.
Rather than focusing on prisons and immigration and building new detention centres, more funding should be put towards lessening the social erosion and harm caused by the prison system. If the public wants government to tackle systemic racism and exploitation, one of the first things we ought to address is society’s approach to rehabilitation and imprisonment.
