Recent figures have demonstrated that nearly nine out of 10 children held in custody on remand in London are from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background.
According to statistics obtained by The Guardian under freedom of information requests by Transform Justice and the Howard League for Panel Reform show 87% of children on remand in the capital between July and September were from an ethnic minority background. Individuals held on remand are awaiting court hearings after being charged with an offence.
The percentage of BAME children on remand in the same period in England and Wales had reportedly risen from 54% to 57%, while 33% were black. BAME people account for 15.5% of the population in England, according to 2016 figures.
David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, in a statement to The Guardian said, “The government’s failure to act on racial disproportionality across the justice system is resulting in unfair treatment for black, Asian and minority ethnic people. The government must now implement the Lammy Review recommendations it ignored and go further to ensure that all people – regardless of their racial background – are treated the same. The justice system must be fair for everyone.”
In 2017, the Lammy Review found evidence of racial bias across the criminal justice system. He said at the time there was “greater disproportionality” in the number of black people in prisons in England and Wales than in the US.
In June, Boris Johnson was accused of misleading MPs in the House of Commons after the prime minister claimed 16 of Lammy’s 35 recommendations had been put in place, when in fact only six had been fully implemented. Previous research also found more than half of boys in young offender institutions) – prisons for boys aged 15 to 17 and young adult men aged 18 to 21 – identified as being from a black or minority ethnic background.
