Blog – Racial Inequality in the Justice System

Lilly Lewis, Women’s Involvement Advisor, One Small Thing

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In the next of her series of blogs, our Women’s Involvement Advisor reflects on Black History Month and on her experience of being a black woman in the justice system. She highlights the ways racially minoritised women are let down by the system, and why action to address racial inequality in the justice system is long overdue.

Black history month is so important to me and although I constantly challenge inequalities of every kind most days, in October I do reflect more on what being a black woman means to me. I take time to research influential black women and I always enjoy reading about their lives and how they have broken the glass ceiling. This empowers me to always do better and be more proactive when raising issues and awareness around being a black woman.

It is so important to speak about the experiences of black and racially minoritised women in the justice system and encourage those in authority to listen and make changes. I believe these women are being hugely let down when placed in custody. We need to see more diversity in the prison estate - from officers to medical staff. Even specialist equalities staff were often white and could not relate to the issues that black and minoritised women had.

When I reported what I felt was racist behaviour when I was in prison, I did not get any response. This included women in the dinner queue using racist stereotypes in front of me or going to collect my medication and an officer handing me an Asian woman’s prescription. When I said I wasn't her, she replied ‘Oh you look like her’. I'm half Jamaican so I guess to her we both had brown faces.

Discrimination could also be seen in who was allowed certain benefits such as a reduction in the amount of their wages they had to pay to the victim support scheme. Lots of friends of mine had the standard 40% reduced to 20% or 15%, and some kept all their wages. I did not know one black or minoritised woman that had received this. When I have looked into this since, no statistics are available, despite this being recommended by the Lammy Report. Only 1% of Judges are Black. If there were more then maybe we would see a bit more equality in the criminal justice system. At the moment it feels like a criminal system with little justice. 

I recently read Tackling Double Disadvantage, Ending inequality for Black, Asian, minoritised and migrant women in the criminal justice system, A 10-point action plan for change[1].  All 10 points in the action plan are so relevant and should have already been happening. Addressing discrimination and racism against Black, Asian, minoritised and migrant women is desperately needed and it feels frustrating and almost unbelievable that in 2022 we are still fighting such deep racial inequalities in the criminal justice system.

I can definitely relate to the voices of the women interviewed for the Double Disadvantage report. It’s fair to say that myself and all the racially minoritised women I spoke to would agree that we were most definitely treated differently. For me I felt that my own feelings around being mixed race were always dismissed, and I witnessed other black women being treated in a despicable manner.

I was serving alongside two women who were from Nigeria. One of them had UK status and the other did not. However, staff seemed unwilling to ensure they had the correct information for each individual, and the women were classed as a collective. Both were treated as if they had no legal right to be here and this meant both were sent back to closed prison when in fact one had the legal right to remain in the UK.

I think it’s vital, as described in point 1 of the Double Disadvantage Action Plan, that criminal justice staff are trained on culture, ethnicity, race, faith, gender and anti-racism to meet the multiple and intersecting needs of Black, Asian, minoritised and migrant women. I'm quite surprised that this isn't already happening as this would be one of the first things I would focus on. How can you work alongside and support racially minoritised women if you have no education or training in this area? This would be the first place that I would start, alongside trauma informed training to ensure that all service users you are working with are given the best service for their specific needs and experiences.

It’s really important that we include the voices of women who have experience of the criminal justice system, and take on their views and opinions. I feel strongly that point 3 of the action plan, which is to recruit Black, Asian minoritised and migrant women with lived experience of the criminal Justice system to become peer mentors and cultural mediators across the whole system, could be of real value.

Importantly as point 10 highlights, the issues identified in the Farmer Review[2] around strengthening family, children, and community relationships in prison need to be addressed for Black, Asian, minoritised and migrant women. Understanding the unique needs of these women around community and family ties is so important, such as how feelings of shame around crime and imprisonment may impact women from diverse communities.

Racism is something that has been happening as long as I have been alive (51 years) and way before me. Of all the racial inequalities we see and hear about every day, I feel the most devastated when we look at the justice system. The disparities between racially minoritised and white people is so large, with racially minoritised people being more likely to receive a custodial sentence, and then more likely to receive a longer sentence. When they arrive at prison they are dealt with so differently, it is something that really angers me. It doesn’t stop there. Once released from prison the stigma of having a criminal record, compounded by racist attitudes, makes it harder to be housed and find employment. It’s time we stopped only talking about this topic, but started taking action.

[1] Agenda, Hibiscus Initiatives, Muslim Women In Prison, Zahid Mubarek Trust, Criminal Justice Alliance and Women In Prison, (January 2022) https://weareagenda.org/tackling-double-disadvantage/ 

[2] The Importance of Strengthening Female Offenders' Family and other Relationships to Prevent Reoffending and Reduce Intergenerational Crime, Lord Farmer, 2019. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/farmer-review-for-women

By Lilly Lewis, Women’s Involvement Advisor at One Small Thing