Half of all black boys subject to court orders suffered racial discrimination

A report by the Inspectorate of Probation has found that half of all black boys subject to court orders suffer from racial discrimination, and that little is being done to address it.

The report said: “In half of the cases inspected there was evidence (where it had been recorded) that the child had experienced racial discrimination.”

The report went on to criticise the lack of action being taken, saying: “To reduce the over-representation of black and mixed heritage boys in the criminal justice system, there must be a clear local understanding of what is driving it in the first place, with a detailed, robust working plan in place to address it. We did not find this to have been the case in most areas.”

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy said it represented “yet another damning report about the racism that continues to blight every part of the CJS that ministers will chose to ignore.”