Earlier this week, Lord Navnit Dholakia PC,OBE,DL, (Deputy Leader, Liberal Democrats) shared his two cents on ethnic minorities during the Queen’s Speech debate 2021.
Addressing the House of Lords, he said, “Over a quarter (27%) of the prison population,21574 people are from a minority ethnic group. If their proportion reflected their presence in the community, we would have 9000 fewer people in prison. The economic cost of BAME over representation in the system is estimated to be £ 234 million a year. It is simple to say that they commit more crime. Not all crimes are reported or solved.The question is how did we produce this anomaly.
In his speech, Lord Dholakia outlined that there is a clear direct association between ethnic minority groups and odds of receiving custodial sentences.
“Crime may have a lot to do with access.The least offending group are people from the Indian subcontinent. BAME people in prison pepper more negatively about their experience in prisons and relationship with staff.They are more likely to report having been recently restrained or placed in segregation. Discrimination complaints are inadequately investigated “all to often” according to the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.There is a failure to collect the equalities data needed to conduct a meaningful investigation,” he added.
Lord Dholakia highlighted that if the present situation continues, we’ll be heading for serious incidents in our prisons.
