The criminal justice system is part of the problem, not the solution

In 1985 there were 4000 black people in British prisons. Today there are 12000, making the black prison population five times greater than numbers in the general population. The reality is that 1.5 per cent of the UK black population is in custody - and this did not happen by accident or solely through "social exclusion." Professor Bowling uses the term prisonisation to describe the impact of the continued criminalization of the black community which ends employment and makes an individual virtually unemployable, hinders skills development and drains financial and cultural resources: "Rather than making it generally less likely that an individual will re-offend, it makes it more likely...but also as a consequence of the prisonisation, which entrenches criminal identity." Over the last thirty years, research has shown that the more criminalised black communities become, the more likely it is that serious crimes will be committed by individuals from the black community. As punitive measures have increased, so has the incidence of violent crime. According to Professor Bowling, the criminal justice system is part of the problem of crime within the black community, not the solution. He said: "I think that even though the stated intention of the criminal justice system is to reduce crime and do justice, unfortunately it does injustice and causes crime, rather than the other way around."

According to Professor Bowling it will take both "creativity" and "imagination" for young black people to break out of the cycle of crime as there is a real problem of people who have experienced youth custody and the resultant problem of broken families. The level of disproportionality of black imprisonment is now larger in the UK than it is in the USA. He said: "That is quite shocking for a country that prides itself on so-called Britishness and fair play. We have been going down the wrong street and it's time to change course." Dr Stanislas believes that black people face "systemic" and "institutionalized" problems in Britain that transform into social disadvantage: "The inability of some black families to provide support for their children as mentioned in the report is a reflection in part of systemic and institutional issues. The majority of black people in this country who are not poor, are not far from it." One of Professor Bowling's recommendations for alternative approaches to reduce the numbers of black people getting caught up in the system is in early prevention. A 40-year follow up of one such project found that every dollar invested in pre-school education yields a $13 reduction in crime.

Children who participate in sport, theatre, drama, music education and training are less likely to offend that those who do not. Yet as Dr Stanislas has said, black people live in the most socially deprived areas in terms of resources, leisure facilities and opportunities. This does not remove individual responsibility and choice, but "the evidence is clear that the systems, institutions and policies of the state are more significant in creating or constraining people's opportunities than any action by the individuals themselves." He commended the work of organisations that deal with young people already caught up in the system and suggested that much more government money should be made available for independent programmes run by members of the black community. The irony of the situation is that the government is pouring money into arresting, detaining, trying and imprisoning young black people when funding alternative approaches could reap greater long term benefits in terms of crime prevention. Professor Bowling said that a week at a court trial costs the taxpayer £100,000 and the cost to detain a child in a secure unit for one year is £175,000: "What about taking just a bit of that quarter of a million pounds and investing it in the future of our young people? It doesn't take a genius to work out the cost benefit."

Whether one uses the term white supremacy or not, the reality is the same; that black people have historically been denigrated, demonized, routinely targeted by the police and have encountered discrimination within the criminal justice system that has led to the present situation of a minority of black youth being involved in criminal activity, but accounting for a disproportionate rate of crime among the 10-17 age group. As experts have argued, the criminalization of the black community breeds crime; it does not solve it, but has a destabilizing effect on families and individuals. "Prisonisation, " as Professor Bowling states, entrenches a criminal identity in an individual making it more likely that they will commit crime than not. At the same time, whilst black families are demonized by the state and mainstream media and blamed for crime within the black community, the reality is that white families, as Dr Stanislas argues produce more criminals but are not subject to the same levels of scrutiny and judgement as black families. Professor Bowling has pointed the way forward - to restrict the actions of the police and invest in community-based approaches to crime, which I would have to support and endorse wholeheartedly. As he states, such initiatives are "not only a road to humanity and social justice," but also a means of achieving "a safer society."
-- Mathaba Author Deborah Gabriel is the editor of online news publication Black Britain and founder and director of Imani Media Ltd.