AYJ attends House of Lords briefing event on PCSC Bill and racial inequality

Last week, AYJ Director, Pippa Goodfellow, attended a briefing event for Members of the House of Lords to examine the potential impact of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill on racial inequality in the criminal justice system.

Coordinated by AYJ member, the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA), the meeting was also attended by EQUAL, the Transition to Adulthood Alliance, the Traveller Movement, Agenda and Maslaha, to brief Peers on shared concerns about the potential increased racial inequality caused by the Bill, with a focus on multiple areas including gender, age, religion, and how these intersect with the criminal justice system.

The PCSC Bill reached its second reading in the House of Lords last week and the government is yet to withdraw any of its discriminatory proposals, despite increasing pressure from concerned organisations and individuals. The government ‘justifies’ introducing discriminatory clauses by claiming that such legislation will protect the public, but simultaneously admits there is limited evidence the Bill will reduce crime.

Pippa set out the serious and disproportionate implications that the PCSC Bill will have on Black and ethnic minority children, with key points including:

• The Lammy Review identified racial disparity in youth justice as its ‘biggest concern’ and yet while the number of children in the youth justice system has dropped significantly in the last decade, this has disproportionately benefited White children. Over half of children in prison are Black and minority ethnic, despite only making up 18% of the child population.

• Children from ethnic minorities are overpoliced, more likely to be stopped and searched, arrested, less likely to be diverted, and are therefore disproportionately likely to end up in the criminal justice system. This will only increase with the punitive measures of the Bill.

• Of particular concern, they are more likely to face the harsher sentencing regimes (clauses 101 and 104-107) which increase the use of mandatory custodial sentences and increase minimum custodial sentences and terms. The consequences of these reforms will mean more Black and minority ethnic children sentenced to custody and spending significantly longer in custody, unjustifiable given there will very likely not even be any resultant reduction in crime.

• Punitive sentencing measures must be seen in the context of other measures in the bill l that will drag more ethnic minority children into the youth justice system in the first place:

  • The Serious Violence Duty (clauses 7-22) as currently drafted is a police-led and enforcement-driven approach that is highly likely to play out like Gangs Matrix where racialised profiling, labelling and targeting is rife.

  • Protest measures (Part 3) contradicts article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which establishes the right of children to freely express their views, in all matters affecting them.

  • The destabilising impact of clauses 61-63 regarding ‘unauthorised encampments’ and the criminalisation of trespass risks more Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children entering the youth justice system.

• The government has stated it wants this bill to improve trust and confidence in the justice system, but in fact, these measures represent a missed opportunity to stop a cycle of discrimination and mistrust by treating this generation of children differently.

To read more on the AYJ’s concerns surrounding increased racial inequality stemming from the PCSC Bill, please refer to our new second reading PCSC Bill briefing here.