The Lammy Review called for the UK criminal justice system (CJS) to have more scrutiny in their data on ethnicity and religion, in order to move towards fairer treatment.
The courts and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) do not record religion, which makes it harder to hold them accountable for discrimination.
[4] Despite this the most prominent frustration of Muslim prisoners has been found to be stereotypical portrayals of Islam, leading to unfair treatment and higher levels of restraint and segregation being used against them by staff.
The report suggests that this issue can be dealt with through "race-blind" prosecuting, where identifying information (such as name and ethnicity) is redacted from case files passed by the police to CPS prosecutors.
The targeting of groups disproportionately affects BAME people in several ways: One of the key tools used to prosecute suspected gang members is the doctrine of Joint Enterprise.
The Metropolitan Police, cited in the report, argue that gang affiliation and crime are "fluid and chaotic" and attempting to address associated issues on a group level is ineffective.
A written submission to the report's Call for Evidence by the Black Training and Enterprise Group said that "the main pathways and risk factors for young people into the youth justice system all record high levels of disproportionality: from school exclusions, the care system, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and first contact with the police."
The London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association's written submission states: "In the absence of educational or employment progression...it may become a default position to fall in with a 'gang'."
Plea decisions are critical to Criminal Justice System, by providing incentives for those who have committed crimes to admit guilt, in order to prevent the stress placed on victims.
The Relative Rate Index analysis of 2014/15 data found that: The primary reason for this difference in plea decisions is a lack of trust in the Criminal Justice System among BAME communities.
This makes BAME defendants less likely to cooperate with the police or trust the advice of legal aid solicitors, who can be seen as part of the ‘system’.
At the same time, Black, Asian and Mixed ethnic defendants are all more likely to request legal advice in police station than their white counterparts.
[1] The suggestions as part of this section were that: In England and Wales, an innovative scheme named Operation Turning Point was piloted from November 2011 to July 2014.
The suggestions as part of this section were that: The report found that there has been a history of knowledge regarding BAME children being disproportionately affected by the Criminal Justice System, specifically Youth Offending Teams (YOTs).
The suggestions as part of this section were that: The report found that work reduces dependency on crime and that training increases self-respect and stake in society.
Despite this, previous convictions have a hugely detrimental effect on future work prospects and BAME groups are disproportionately affected as they are already more likely to be discriminated in employment.
The suggestions as part of this section were that: Release produced a report in 2013 on the undue focus of policing and prosecution of drug offences on black and minority communities in England and Wales.
[11] This was found to have a damaging impact on the free movement of citizens who have done nothing wrong, because only 7% of stop and searches for drugs result in an arrest.
[12] Ultimately the report proposes the decriminalisation of drug possession offences as and effective policy solution to the wasted resources and racial profiling problems found.