A thread on #racism in the Criminal Justice System:

After learning of the tragic killing of #GeorgeFloyd in the US it can be possible to feel like incidents such as that are remote; they take place in a different jurisdiction thousands of miles away.

However the events in Minnesota have sparked protests in large cities in England as well. Whilst I do not speak for these protestors, what is clear is that they feel the same pain as their counterparts in the US.

In order to understand this pain, it is helpful to compare the way a young black man and a young white man experience the criminal justice system in this country.

The first interaction most have with the CJS is with the police, a young black man is 9.5x more likely to be stopped and search than a young white man, he is also three times more likely to be arrested. For certain offences like robbery, he is over 10x more likely to be arrested.

If the young black man is charged with a triable either way offence, he is around 60% more likely to be committed to the Crown Court than the white man, where the sentencing powers of the judge are almost always much higher.

While waiting for his trial the black man is 20% more likely to be remanded in custody than his white counterpart. When it comes time to pass sentence the black man is 1.4x more likely to receive an immediate custodial sentence, where it is a drug offence that rises to 1.5x.

What this example seeks to demonstrate is that while it might be rare in this country to see tragic footage like that of the killing of George Floyd, it would be naive to think that racism within the CJS is a problem exclusive to the US.

For those of us working within the criminal justice system it is not enough to say we are not racist, we must be actively anti-racist and commit to fighting inequality wherever we see it. [END]