Prisons urged to appoint Black-led charities to tackle racial inequality faced by young offenders

A report into the youth criminal justice system is urging prisons and other services to commission black and racial minority led charities to help tackle inequality and discrimination faced by young offenders.

The research by Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) look at a “cliff edge” faced by an increasing number of older children in youth custody face when they transition to adult prisons.

This found that support worsens when this move takes place, with racially minoritised young people particularly impacted.

It found that these groups of young people face “adultification bias” where they are perceived as less vulnerable than their white peers.

Also, services lack “cultural competency” to offer support, and young people have lost confidence in the system due to racism they have endured throughout their life.

This is resulting in racially minoritised young people receiving worse support than their white peers when they move from young offender settings to adult prisons.

*NEW @the_AYJ REPORT* highlighting the experiences of “some of the most vulnerable" young people as they transition from youth to adult justice.

Read the evidence review, produced as part of @T2AAlliance project generously funded by @barrowcadbury here: https://t.co/v1sKs1gctg
— AYJ (@the_AYJ) April 25, 2023

“Specialist voluntary and community sector organisations, that can play a key role in addressing these shortcomings and providing tailored support, are often not available,” warns the AYJ report.

“The voluntary and community sector can bridge the gap between statutory services at 18, and organisations led by the communities they work with are critical in ensuring specialist support is available for racially minoritised young people.

“Much more needs to be done to facilitate the involvement of Black and racially minoritised-led organisations in supporting this particularly failed group of young people at this particularly tumultuous time in their lives.”

It added that available evidence “highlights an urgent need for the consistent presence of grassroots, voluntary sector services in the lives of racially minoritised young people”.

According to latest figures more than a quarter (28%) of children in the youth justice system are racially minoritised and more than one in ten (11%) are Black.