Biases in the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales
The criminal justice system in England and Whales is the pioneer of the common law in the United Kingdom and the route to criminal justice. In the two nations, the courts have been expanded to involve individual cases and personalized decisions that are free of bias and other legal perceptions. Besides, across the two countries, people of different ethnic backgrounds are breaking barriers as students from other ethnic communities such as Asians and Hispanics are achieving in school, the minorities have more powers in the House of Commons, and they have also established in terms of inst6itutions that fight against discrimination. However, the criminal justice system still lags with those prosecuted and charged and punished coming from the minority populations. According to the Ministry of Justice, the England and whales population make up 14% of the entire population in prisons, of which 25% are adult minorities. In comparison, 40% of those in custody are young adults from minority backgrounds (7). These trends bring up the question of whether there are biases to specific groups of people in England and whales in regards to the criminal justice system. In this regard, the disappropriate numbers represent the lives of people who were either harshly changed due to their group background, or they were selected incriminated due to the biases seen in the United Kingdom criminal justice system.
The Lemmy Review
The Lemmy review is a document published in 2017, and it identifies the racial disparities within the criminal justice system in the United Kingdom, especially in England and whales that arise from the point of arrest to the court process, rehabilitation, and at the community level. According to the UK Justice department, the review represents a significant impetus as well as an opportunity to make transformative changes in tracking inequalities across England and whales in the criminal justice system. The report has two distinctive charectirstsices. First, it spans the breadth of children, women, and men in the criminal justice system such that the bises that occur to these groups of people are identified besides there racial, social, or economic backgrounds (Peter 168). Secondly, the review also covers the role of the crown prosecution service, the prisons, the court systems, as well as the juvenile institutions in regards to there approach to the criminal justice system and their level of discrimination against the minority groups. In the past, most of the information presented in the review was not in the public domain. Hence, the report has brought up more scrutiny to the criminal justice system of the United Kingdom, specifically in Whales and England.
From the report findings, some people are overrepresented in the prisons with the back people making up about 13% of their general prison population. Other groups, such as the mixed ethnic prisoners such as the Asians, the Mexicans, and other ethnic minorities, are also overrepresented, given that their crimes were lesser than the rest of the population. Besides the disproportionate number of ethnic minorities, the complexity of the charges and the prosecution mirrors the narrative in other areas of city life, such as in schools and public facilities. For instance, in England, the Chinese and Indian children are more likely to outperform in school as the Pakistani children struggle. Still, access to job opportunities is mainly reserved for the natives who sometimes perform less than the minorities (Sheptycki). , in the criminal justice system, the minorities are seen to be charged with minor offenses and incriminated for a more extended period as compared to the natives where some of them are released on parole after committing serious crimes. Following unofficial estimates, the youth are also affected in the criminal justice system biases in England and Whales such that many of the children from in Secure training centers and juvenile centers from the minorities make up most of the population.
Meanwhile, religious groups are not seen to be affected much, especially the Muslims who make up the minority, do not fall under the ethnic minorities. However, the number of Muslim prisoners has increased in the last decade, from around 3% to 24% in the year 2014 (UK Justice department). Therefore, the report represents several groups that are seen to be biased by the criminal justice system in England and Whales and they include the ethnic minorities, gender minorities, as well as the youth and children. Besides, minorities face unique challenges that include discrimination in many walks of there lives in the country, and to add on, there are also biased by the criminal justice system. Further, the marginalized communities with a representation of the white working-class are also affected. Hence, the criminal justice system in the two countries seem to work better for the privileged white majority and is biased on the minorities which include the white British poor. Generally, the criminal justice system in the review covers the laws of prison as well as offender maagebmt. It concludes that it is in the preserve of the white master who includes the courts, the criminal justice procedure, and sentencing. In the context of prisons, the whale’s government have an exception of the offender management protocol of which most of the jails activities are divolved and hence the prisons set there terms and conditions of stay.
The criminal justice system in other Jurisdictions
The problem of criminal justice bias ids not unique to England and Wales, it also occurs in other jurisdictions in the world. For instance, in US, the government is grappling with how to deal with the disparities in the criminal justice system given that the system, especially the courts, are independent. Hence, it becomes challenging to influence their decisions. In France, the Muslims make up about 8% of the tola prison population based in Canada. The indigenous populations make up 3% of the total with 25% being the from the minority groups (Peter 169). In this regard, the question of social and economic status of the people come into plasy as most of the minorities find themselves incasirated following minor offences trhat are related to there way of life and the life hardships. For example in Australia, the Arboriginals and the Torrent strait islanders who make up 2% of the countys population also make up 27% of the prisonrs (Singal). The aboriginals have been documented to be descrimnated upon by the governments systems and have been delaniated from society hence maing there lives hard. Howver4e, rfrom this comparisons, each jurisdiction has there own ideas of how to handle the situation with others going for policy changes while others decongesting the prisons through community programs.
In England, there have been efforts to diversify the udiciaries to othere ways where the communities are inviolved in rehabilitating the offenbders. This practice is being imp-limented in some states in thye US whjwre the minor offednders, especially juveniles are put under community rehabilitation whwre they are monitoured and trained on othere means of life othere than crime. Also, the idea of ‘closer to home’ which has been proposed by many social schoolers, has been a success in NewZealand whwre prisoners are incaerated close to home where they do not feel to be away from the community and hence it becomes easier for them to be intergrated into the community once they finish tyhere yterms in prisosn. Although the minorities sem to be overrepresented I the prisio centres, the problem cannot be solvesd by the criminal justice system alone but has to involve ethe community as well since most of the issues lie outside of the system. For instance, people from the vlack background are morte likely to live in poverty than those in the white backgrounds which is also a determinant when it comes to proson life as well as court process and the sentencing (Clarke and Williams 221). Thefereore, the economic background is afactor in detrmining the prison population incrsrs besides the biases that occur in the crimal justice system.
The issues of the minorities in Engalnd and Wahles started long time before the criminal justice system was well established. Back in the 1980s, the minority groups young men and women were disadvateged when ntheye made plea desciosns and went before the magistrates (Dirkzwager and Beijersbergen 178). They were also discriminated in the prisons as the amount of work and punishment for them was much tougher than the rest of the populations. Although the problems have been addressed, the biggest challenge noe lies in the process of the criminal justice which seems to be biased along ethnic groups and class in both England and whales (UK Justice departemnt 2). Although the criminal justice system is powerful and more far reaching by making millions of decision each year, the national government has a role to play in terms of policy and legislation to ensure that the justice system is just and that all offenders are treated equally before the law and in consummate with their offences. I this regard, more can be done to achieve the core goals of the criminal justice system in both England and whales to ensure that the defendants as well as the offenders are treated equally regardless of their ethnicity or economic backgrounds.
Disapproprite Representation
The response to the disappropriate representation of the minority groups in the criminal justice system especially in prisons is based on several factors. First, there must be a robust system in place to ensure that there is fair treatment of people in every part of the criminal justice system. In this regard, bringing the decision making process into the open and exposing the way the process takes place will ensure that there is fair delivery of decisions and sentencing that does not discriminate on any person (Singal). For instance, the jury should deliberate there findings in an open discussion that deters prejudice and exposes the unintended biases such that judgement should be justified more than others. The emphasisi on open descison making can mean different things in the criminal justice system, such as accountability and the provision of a model that replicates across the country. Secondly, the trust of the criminal justice system to produce unbiased justuice is essential in ensuring reform and rehabilitation of the prisoners. The reason why many people plea guilty is to have a chence to reduce there sentences of which they see as inevitable. In this case, the crimanla justrice system becomes the ‘us anganist them’ of which many of the minoritires do not trust the system while the majority whites see the system as favorable to them. This scenario elicits mistrust along the system and hence the justice becomes null and non functional.
Overall, many people both the victims and offenders as well as the people working in the crimal justice system belive that the criminal justice system in England and Whales discriminated paartivular groups of individuals within the society. The anwer to this discrimination in England has been to remove the culture of the minority against the majority in the criminal justice sytem as well as to bring diversity amkng the important desciso making that tend to shape the system. This has been done by involving the community more in the jury process, getting more judges and magistrates into the courts from the minorities as well as ensuring equaty in purnishment at the prison level. Alongside, there is much to be done to demystify the way descisons are made at every point in the system to ensure that the decision is just, fair and that it bulds respect for the rule of law. Moreover, the criminal justice system should have a much stringer ananlysis of the of there responsibilities which tends to lie beyond the boundaries of the system as it spills over to the community. In this regad, statutoty services provided by the crimanl justice stystem are essential and irreplacemble and cannot ignore the community since perception is usully driven by the people who use the system.