Just looking: Hugh McMichael presents some of the statistics behind imprisonment

‘The majority of imprisoned people are poor and/or have suffered serious abuse as children.’

My interest in criminal justice goes back to my teens. Back then I aspired to become a probation officer, to support those who felt unfairly blamed. Instead I became a hospital and hospice doctor, but ten years ago I started going into prisons. For the last four of those years I have been a volunteer chaplain in a high-security facility. There, I have had the privilege of meeting a few of the real people behind often violent offences. I have heard the pain of many of their life experiences.

Hearing their stories has encouraged me to explore, in some depth, the factors which lead to imprisonment. Most of us are now aware that ethnicity is one important factor, but in this article I will link this to poverty, and to bad experiences in one’s upbringing. I have some facts and figures but I trust these will illustrate these connections.

Let me first tell you about Ben (not his real name). Aged thirty-seven, Ben came across to me as a gentle giant. He is is a very tall and strong man, of black and white parents. He was repeatedly teased at school and responded by fighting, which eventually led to his exclusion. He left school with no qualifications and was unemployed. He drifted and turned to shoplifting.

At the age of twenty-two, having taught himself to read and write, Ben took a higher education course. He passed with multiple credits but chose not to go to university. He started to use drugs casually, then became drug-dependent. He had a rehabilitation course but there was no follow-up and he still had no job. He slept rough for seven years, thieving to maintain his drug habit.

He acknowledges he has a short temper, especially if he witnesses injustice.

Ben has been in prison for two years. He is deemed dangerous, which means he cannot get work or attend courses in prison that might help him.

Sixty per cent of all male prisoners were excluded from school, and exclusion is six times more common for black students compared to white ones. Imprisoned black people are five times more likely to be labelled violent. Unemployment is two-and-a-half-times more common for black people (Ben has never had a proper job; if ex-prisoners do have employment, they are less than half as likely to reoffend).

Black people are also nine times more likely to be stopped and searched; three times more likely to be arrested; four times more likely to be imprisoned (with one and a half times longer sentences); and eight times more likely to be in youth custody.

But is skin colour the only factor? Roma people are over-represented in prison compared with white British by over ten times – two-and-a-half times more than black people. British Asians with Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds are significantly more likely to be in prison than those with Indian backgrounds. Two factors that may contribute to these findings are poverty and childhood experiences.

Let’s look firstly at poverty. Forty-two percent of Roma children qualify for free school meals. This figure is thirty-two percent for children of Bangladeshi origin, seventeen per cent for those of Pakistani origin, and six per cent for those of Indian origin. Twenty-five per cent of black children qualify, and fourteen per cent of white children. This is important because statistics show that the poorer the ethnic group, the higher the relative rate of imprisonment. (While thinking about poverty, note that thirty per cent of all female prosecutions are for debt.)

The statisticians among you will be clear that this does not necessarily indicate direct cause and effect, but it does make us ask why this correlation exists. Here is another key statistic: seventy-two per cent of prisoners received benefits prior to imprisonment –poverty has been real for very many prisoners.

Let’s also look at the influence of early life experiences. Twenty-five per cent of male prisoners were brought up in care. This compares to less than one per cent of the general population – so an experience of being in care means you are thirty-five times more likely to be imprisoned. The impact on female prisoners is double even this – half of all female prisoners were brought up in care. Add to this the well-documented fact that violent children come from violent homes. Sixty-seven per cent of sons whose fathers are in prison will themselves be imprisoned.

There is an established academic measure of child abuse called Adverse Childhood Experiences – so called ACE studies – which gives a score out of ten. The higher the score, the worse the child has been abused. People with an ACE score of four or higher have many increased life risks. They are four times more likely to experience anxiety and/or depression, and six times more likely to engage in illicit drug or excess alcohol usage. Suicide attempts increase by thirty-seven times and they are eight times more likely to be perpetrators and victims of violence. Fifty per cent of male prisoners have an ACE score of four or above. This is seven to ten times more common than the general population. (In another correlation, the poorer the background, the higher the average ACE score.)

So, the majority of the people imprisoned are poor and/or have suffered serious abuse as children. The question then is how might society help them to become better citizens? Would this be through punishment, or support? Consider Norway, with its emphasis on rehabilitation.

Friends might want to ask how these observations fit with the government’s crime reduction strategies. Are more prison places and longer sentences the answer?

Then consider the UK’s wealth inequality. The poorest half of the population – 30 million people – owns just nine per cent of the nation’s wealth. Might generations of enslavement or other economic abuse contribute to present inequalities in our criminal justice system? Are the links between poverty, abuse and imprisonment related to this extreme inequality?

For Quakers, perhaps the immediate question is: can we influence our nation’s financial priorities? Many Friends are already engaged in this work; might you be able to contribute?

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Comments

This is very important and enlightening. Thank you.

By suehampton@btinternet.com on 25th November 2021 - 17:17

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