More Blacks jailed here than in US

On 11 October 2010, The Guardian article, ’More black people jailed in England and Wales proportionally than in US’, informed us thus:

"THE NUMBER OF BLACK PEOPLE JAILED IN ENGLAND AND WALES IS SEVEN TIMES LARGER THAN THE AMOUNT THEY MAKE UP OF THE POPULATION. The proportion of black people in prison in England and Wales is higher than in the United States, a landmark report released today by the Equality and Human Rights Commission reveals… In the United States, the proportion of black prisoners to population is about four times greater.

The report, which aims to set out how to measure ‘fairness’ in Britain, says that ethnic minorities are ‘substantially over-represented in the custodial system’ It suggests many of those jailed have ‘mental health issues, learning disabilities, have been in care or experienced abuse’.

Experts and politicians said over-representation of black men was A RESULT OF DECADES OF RACIAL PREJUDICE IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM and an overly punitive approach to penal affairs.

‘People will be and should be shocked by this data,’ said Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust. ‘We have a tendency to say we are better than the US, but we have not got prison right’…

Black people constitute less than 3% of the population, yet made up 15% of people stopped by police. The commission found that FIVE TIMES MORE BLACK PEOPLE THAN WHITE PEOPLE PER HEAD OF POPULATION IN ENGLAND AND WALES ARE IMPRISONED. THE ETHNIC MINORITY PRISON POPULATION HAS DOUBLED IN A DECADE – from 11,332 in 1998 to 22,421 in 2008...

A QUARTER OF THE PEOPLE IN PRISON ARE FROM AN ETHNIC MINORITY. Muslims now make up 12% of the prison population in England and Wales...

Diane Abbott, who raised the alarm over the growing numbers of jailed black men as a backbencher, said she very much regretted that the last Labour government swallowed Michael Howard's line that 'prison works'.

‘There was never a serious examination of the consequences of locking up a generation of young black men. The result is there are some prisons in the south east which are now virtually all black. Many are converting to Islam’…

The commission points out that BLACK CHILDREN ARE THREE TIMES AS LIKELY TO BE PERMANENTLY EXCLUDED FROM EDUCATION.

‘We are reaping the effects of criminalising a community in the 1970s,’ says Ben Bowling, professor of criminal justice at Kings College London and a former adviser to the Home Affairs select committee.

‘The question is how you break the cycle when young men experience custody. THREE QUARTERS SIMPLY RE-OFFEND. We have to intervene with families more effectively to stop kids going to prison. That means looking at school exclusions. You need to deal with issues like mental health and substance abuse. It is not enough to throw our hands in the air’.

The policies implemented in the last decade mean incarceration levels in Britain are now among the highest in western Europe. England and Wales have an imprisonment rate of 155 per 100,000 and Scotland of 149 per 100,000 of the population. This contrasts with rates of less than 100 per 100,000 for most of Britain's neighbours'."

Interpreting the statistics and commentary cited above:

EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION: "Black people constitute less than 3% of the population, yet made up 15% of people stopped by police."

PC CROWD: 'Instutional Racism! The Fascist is picking on the innocent immigrant!'

COMMON SENSE: 'How many times more criminal is the Black community than the rest of the population?'

EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION: "The proportion of people of African-Caribbean and African descent incarcerated here is almost seven times greater to their share of the population."

PC CROWD: 'Instutional Racism! The Fascist is picking on the innocent immigrant!'

COMMON SENSE: 'Black people are seven times more criminal than others in England and Wales. And yet the police only stop and search them five times as much? Surely, to be fair, they should be searched seven times as much!'

Ben Bowling, Professor of Criminal Justice at Kings College London and adviser to the Home Affairs select committee, says:

"We are reaping the effects of criminalising a community in the 1970s."

PC CROWD: 'They are not seven times more criminal, you neo-Nazi bigot! It's all the fault of the nasty white racists who criminalised the lovely, fluffy immigrants when they doing no one any harm!'

COMMON SENSE: 'You mean the lovely, fluffy immigrants were murdering, raping, shooting, stabbing, robbing, drugging-up, prostituting and mugging those who had given them sanctuary here? That’s who wrere talking about, is it?'

BEN BOWLING: "Three quarters simply re-offend."

PC CROWD: 'Because of nasty white racists in the 1970s and the institutional racism still with us today!'

COMMON SENSE: 'Lock them up for longer. Deport them when they get out.'

BEN BOWLING: "We have to intervene with families more effectively to stop kids going to prison. That means looking at school exclusions."

PC CROWD: 'We must not fall into the trap of expelling black pupils just for brutalising white ones! And definitely not just for disrupting lessons to such an extent that two whole generations of British schoolchildren will end up knowing sweet b***er all!'

COMMON SENSE: 'If they are not expelled, the well behaved students and the teaching staff will suffer.'

BEN BOWLING: "You need to deal with issues like mental health and substance abuse."

PC CROWD: 'Don't you know the black unfortunates are depressed and forced to take drugs because of your institutional racism? It's nottheir fault they're fractionally maladjusted, it's yours!'

COMMON SENSE: 'Lock up the nuts and druggies. Deport them when they get out.'

THE GUARDIAN: "Diane Abbott says she very much regretted that the last Labour government swallowed Michael Howard's line that 'prison works'!"

PC CROWD: 'Prison doesn’t work for lovely, fluffy black people. Give us something that works like reggae lessons, surfing and safari holidays and educational trips to Jamaica and Disneyland!'

COMMON SENSE: 'Execute the murderers, imprison and castrate the pimps and rapists, imprison and flog the druggies and muggers and deport them all when they get out.'

DIANE ABBOTT: "There was never a serious examination of the consequences of locking up a generation of young black men."

PC CROWD: 'Locking up a generation of black men for accidentally murdering, raping, shooting, stabbing, robbing, drugging-up, prostituting and mugging their own and those who had given them sanctuary because of institutional racism was a bad, extremely racist idea!'

COMMON SENSE: 'Execute the murderers, castrate the rapists, send the immigrant criminals back and try the PC Crowd for treason.'

DIANE ABBOTT: "The result is there are some prisons in the south east which are now virtually all black."

PC CROWD: 'The Nazis are locking up the future leaders of Black Britain!'

COMMON SENSE: 'Go West young man! Whatever you do, don't go South-East!'

DIANE ABBOTT: "Many are converting to Islam."

PC CROWD: 'Muslims aren’t as quite as nice as Black people but they much nicer than nasty white racists, Fascists, Nazis and bigots!'

FACT: 'A black Muslim blew up 26 Londoners on 7/7/2005.'

EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION: "Black children are three times as likely to be permanently excluded from education."

PC CROWD: 'Racists! Fascists! Nazis! Bigots!'

ME: "They start young."