Black Women's Experiences of the Criminal Justice system

By Ruth Chigwada-Bailey, Consultant Criminologist

The UK prison population is the highest in Western Europe according to statistics collated by Howard League. The UK jails 140.4 people in every 1000,000, and jails more under 18s (2,742 in 2005) than any other European state except Ukraine. The UK prison population as a percentage of its general population is 50% higher than France. The UK has the third largest female prison population of the 32 European states surveyed (Howard League, 18.1.06; Statewatch Vol 15 no. 6 November-December, 2005).

Although women continue to make up small minority of prison population (6%), there has been a sharp and disproportionate increase in number of women sent to prison. Between 1995 and 2005, the women's prison population increased by 126% compared with a 46% increase for men. Including foreign nationals, the average population of black prisoners has risen since 1994, by 113% and for Asian prisoners by 75% as compared to 34 rise for white prisoners (Home Office, Race and Criminal Justice, 2003/4).

There are 2.3 million Black, Asian and Minority Women (BAME) in the UK, making up just under 4% of the total population of the UK. In 2002 BAME women made up less than 8% of the total female population of the UK but accounted for close to 31% of female prisoners. Black women are over-represented in prison. Black female prisoners make 26.4% of female prisoners while black males account for 24% of male prisoners. Black British women in prison make 11.6% compared to only 2% of all British women. British Asian women prisoners make 4% of the female prison population. There is a high number of foreign national prisoners and at present 1 in 5 women in prison are foreign nationals. Foreign national prisoners come from 168 countries (Jamaica, The Irish Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey and India). A quarter is Jamaicans by far the largest group.

What does the over-representation of Black women in prison mean? Does that mean Black women commit more serious offences or that racism plays a part in the number of black women sentenced to prison? Most of research on women focuses on white women while research on race and criminal justice system focus on Black males. I take the view that racism does play a part on the number of Black women sentenced to prison. Black women suffer from triple oppression, race, class and gender disadvantages.

According to Home Office (2003/4) Race and the Criminal Justice, black people are just over six times more likely to be stopped and searched, three times more likely to be arrested, and seven times more likely to be imprisoned than white people. Black people are four times while Asian people are 3.5 times likely to be stopped under Terrorism Act, 2000 (ibid). It is agreed in British criminology that black people are less likely to receive probation. There is no research which has specifically looked at how often black women are stopped by the police in UK.

There are serious problems with the way black women are treated throughout the criminal justice system. Despite attempts in many areas to address problems of racism and sexism; there is little awareness of the impact of multiple discrimination and cross-cutting issues that affect black women (Fawcett Society 2005). A review of the decision-making process in the criminal justice system commissioned by the Crown Prosecution Service found that cases involving black women are most likely to be discounted, suggesting that charges are being inappropriately brought by the police, without sufficient evidence. Research by the Crown Prosecution Service suggests a tendency for the police to bring charges against black defendants with weaker evidence. Adult male black defendants are more likely to be send to custody than white defendants and Asian defendants and also likely to be given substantially longer sentences.

I argue that black women are more likely to come into contact with the police than white women for several reasons. Firstly, black women are seen as suspects as they are perceived as more likely to commit criminal acts. Secondly, stereotyping of black women make them seen as potential suspects. Thirdly, the fact that many are single parents tends to bring them into greater contact with the police who search their homes looking for youth suspects. Fourthly, black women are seen as immigrants by virtue of their colour and are therefore more likely to be stopped by police carrying out passports checks. Finally, black women come into contact with the police who target them as suffering from mental disorder under section 136 of the 1983 Mental Health Act (See Chigwada-Bailey 1989).

Black Women as Suspects
Black women are the subject of many negative beliefs and attitudes, the victims of racist assumptions which are likely to affect police attitudes towards them. Their sometimes exuberant 'arm-waving' or otherwise excited behaviour may well be misinterpreted. Common stereotypes afforded to black women include the over-aggressive African woman and the strong dominant African–Caribbean woman. In contrast, Asian women are viewed as 'passive', 'hysterical' or subject to oppressive practices within the family. According to Joseph 2006, the most recent stereotyping of the black woman, presently dominating US popular culture is that of the 'angry black woman' who is driven, outspoken or opinionated, achievement-oriented, and loud-mouthed. She is represented by Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth of NBC's hit series, The Apprentice.

Stereotyping Of Black women
Police consider black women's colour before their gender, and in situations of arrest they are often dealt with quite aggressively. Police assume as they do with Black men that Black women will be violent, and that perception informs the way they handle a situation. Black women ex-prisoners interviewed by the author felt that police officers have no respect for black women (Chigwada-Bailey 1997).

The highly publicised case of Joy Gardner, a black woman of Jamaican origin who died in 1993 in London, lends support to the view that black women can be seen by the authorities as potentially violent. Joy Gardner had overstayed her visa and was visited by the Alien Deportation Group. Her wrists were handcuffed to a leather strap around her waist, bound by a second belt around her thighs, and a third one around her ankles. As she lay on the floor, 13 feet of adhesive tape was wound around her head and face. Mrs Gardner collapsed, and died in hospital a few hours later. Until her tragic death the use of body belts, surgical tape and the existence of a special deportation squad was unknown to the general public. It subsequently came to light that two other African women had been deported in the same way (See Chigwada-Bailey, 1997:34).

If Joy Gardener had been an Australian or a New Zealander the police and immigration authorities are most unlikely to have found it necessary to send so many to her house, nor would they have used such methods. What underlies the events is the perception of black women as aggressive. There would have been horror in white suburbia if a middle-class white woman had been treated in the way Joy Gardner was and it seems almost inconceivable that she would have been 'taped up' in such a fashion.

Three officers were tried for the murder of Joy Gardner and acquitted. In effect, the trial put the victim in the dock. As if to honour the standard stereotype and myth of the 'big strong black woman', she was described by one of the officers as '..The strongest and most violent woman' he had ever encountered. One of the officers said that the treatment she received was 'reasonable in all the circumstances'. (Chigwada-Bailey 1997:34).

It would appear that black women in other European countries also face ill-treatment at the hands of the police. In 2002, a Brussels court ruled that five gendarmes should stand trial in connection with the death in September 1998, of Semira Adamu, a 20 year old Nigerian woman, a rejected asylum seeker. She died within hours of an attempt to deport her forcibly from Brussels-National airport. The court ordered the three escorting officers to stand trial for deliberately causing grievous bodily harm resulting unintentionally, in death of Semira Adamu. Two officers who had supervised the operation on board the plane were charged with committing the same offence through failure to take precautionary measures (Institute of Race Relations, European Race Bulletin, No 42, 2002).

Amnesty International has documented cases of ill-treatment during forced deportation and called on Belgium and other European states to re-examine legislation and practice to ensure that forcible deportations are brought in line with recommendations on the protection of human rights during expulsion issued by Council of Europe bodies (Institute of Race Relations, European Race Bulletin, No 42, 2002).

Black People and Mental Health
The over-representation of Black people in prison also occurs in mental health institutions. Black people are three times more likely than the rest of the population to be admitted to mental hospitals in England and Wales. They are twice as likely to be sent there by the police or the courts and 50% more likely to be placed in seclusion, according to first ethnic census of inpatients published on 7 December 2005 by the Health Inspectorate. The census found also that 9% of mental health inpatients were black or have mixed white-black ethnicity. Black inpatients were 44% more likely to have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and 50% more likely to have been subjected to control and restraint (Black Londoners Forum Magazine, Winter 2005:15).

According to McKenzie (2001), a black eminent consultant psychiatrist in London, 40 per cent of the users of London's psychiatric services are from minority ethnic groups, though they make up only 25 per cent of the population of London. Depression is more common among black people than amongst white people in the UK. McKenzie states that African-Caribbean women are twice as likely as white British women to suffer from depression, African-Caribbean men are more likely than white British men to suffer from depressive ideas and worry. These differences derive mainly from information about non-manual workers, the prototypical black middle-class.

McKenzie states that the highest rates of depression in black women are mainly amongst non-manual workers, predominantly in the African-Caribbean middle-classes. In the UK these women have a much higher risk of suicide rate in the African-Caribbean population, rising to epidemic proportions. The only other country with a higher rate of mental illness amongst the African-Caribbean community is the Netherlands.

Why is it that when black women find themselves in managerial posts, they become more prone to depression? What is needed is the tackling of institutional racism, which would enable black women to function free from race concerns problems which might arise from white colleagues (male and female) who might have problems with a black woman manager. Black women in management might also encounter gender problems from black males.
McKenzie also states that the real cause of mental illness is social. The biggest risk factor to developing schizophrenia is living in a city. If someone has his or her aspirations thwarted, for example through being excluded from school, or not getting the job they want or the promotion they desire, this multiplies their chances of developing depression (McKenzie's Presentation at Criminology in the Millennium Conference, London 2001).
For McKenzie, being under financial strain increases by 50-60 per cent the chances of a person developing depression. He states that Eighty-five per cent of the Caribbean population in the UK have less than £1,000 saved. He points out:

This means when times get hard there is nothing to fall back on. This means things are stressful for black people, things that other populations might be able to cope with becomes a crisis (Ibid).

Social Exclusion Unit report published in July 2002 on reducing Re-offending by Ex-Prisoners found that people from the black community are disproportionately likely to suffer from a range of aspects of social exclusion. For example in 1998, 56 per cent lived in the most deprived local authority areas (SEU, 2002, p.148). Black women are overrepresented in the lowest paid jobs and tokenised in professional and high-paying positions. They are underrepresented in positions of power and control.

Black women prison experience
Black women in prison continue to experience discrimination in prison. Devlin (1998) found that there was a definite stereotyping of groups of women within prisons, which had serious negative implications for British-born black women. According to Devlin, the 'strong fighters' referred to the prevailing view among prison officers that black British women prisoners are physically strong, aggressive and often dangerously violent.

Devlin points out that there are many other nationalities well known for being noisy and expressive, such as Greeks and Italians and that there is little difference to show that these groups are treated any differently from white British women in prison.

The author in her research, black women she interviewed felt that black women were treated differently and that 'in most cases it was black women who were put on report' (Chigwada-Bailey 1997:111). Some women felt that women in prison needed someone to talk to and that some officers were not interested 'in your problems, but gossip' (Ibid).

A survey showed that more than one third of the black women prisoners included rated the race relations in prison in general as 'poor/very poor', and only 18% of them were satisfied with the advice given about money and benefits once they were released from prison, compared with 38% of the white women surveyed. Black women are often caught in a vicious circle on release. When they are sent to prison, their children may be placed with relatives or taken into local authority care. Many black women in Britain tend to live in council housing, usually flats. This means that if they are sentenced to prison they will lose their accommodation. Women who are sent to prison for longer than six months have to re-apply for housing, as they are viewed as having made themselves intentionally homeless (in effect by committing a crime). It means that on release they have no accommodation to go to and therefore cannot get their children back from the local authority that has taken them into care. Each year it is estimated that more than 17,700 children are separated from their mothers by imprisonment.

Many of the women in the author's sample were constantly worrying about this, especially those close to their release date (Chigwada-Bailey 1997). Some social housing providers simply ban all ex-offenders, though the Homelessness Act 2002 make such blanket bans illegal. Research has shown that prisoners who are homeless are more likely to be reconvicted.

Black Women Lawyers
Black lawyers also face racism and are often accused of being 'too close to their black clients (See Chigwada-Bailey 1997). Kennedy in her book, (2005) give examples of experiences of some black female lawyers. One Black woman barrister, Tanoo Mylvaganam, is quoted to have said "You cannot be a woman lawyer, experiencing discriminatory practice yourself as a professional, without being alerted to the way that the same attitudes affect women who do not even have our class advantage".

Black women lawyers complain that the problems of being taken seriously are exacerbated for them, as is the difficulty of securing authority within the courtroom. Those who are successful are constantly told by white colleagues that they do not 'seem' black, as though there were some special stamp of blackness, which they had shrugged off. Such comments are proffered as compliments; it is often not understood why they are offensive.

Women in prison (WIN) report that black and mixed race staff gets mistaken for prisoners by officers. This is said to have never happened to a white member of WIN's staff. (Fawcett Society: Black and Minority Ethnic, 2005).

Problems facing Black Ex-Prisoners
Research suggests that employment reduces the risk of re-offending by between a third and a half. Unemployment makes it harder to maintain stable accommodation or to earn money legitimately. As black prisoners are more likely to receive longer sentences this can impact upon the ability to maintain existing employment while in prison. For some employers, longer prison sentence may mean a serious criminal who may never change his 'criminal way' and this may affect their chances of getting a job on release.

The impact of Imprisonment of Black People in the Community
In US it has been found that the high incarceration of African Americans, especially males has contributed to the social deterioration of African American communities. This has a big social and financial impact on the black community. Amnesty International (1999), found that the rate of imprisonment in US for black women was more than 8 times the rate of imprisonment of white women; the rate of imprisonment of Hispanic women was nearly 4 times the rate of white women. According to Miller's prediction, by the year 2010, the majority of black men aged between 18-39 years will live behind the bars in US (National Association of Advancement of White People, 1999).

In US it is said crime control policies are a major contributor to the disruption of the family, the prevalence of single-parent families and children raised without a father, and the inability of people to get the jobs still available (Haney and Zimbardo 1996:716). I echo Joseph and Taylor (2003) that every black man in prison is a person without a regular job to support his family. Moreover, long term imprisonment for black people makes it difficult, if not impossible, for them to return to society for a productive, conventional life.

This high imprisonment also has an impact on the number of black people enrolled at universities. In 2002 there were more African- Caribbean entrance to prison (Over 11,500) than there were to UK universities (Around 8,000) (See Prison Reform Trust, 2006). This is similar situation in US where in New York, more blacks have entered prison than have graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) system every year since 1989 (Janice Joseph and Dorothy Taylor, 2003).

Black children whose fathers have been imprisoned are at a risk of involvement themselves in the criminal justice system. When mothers are imprisoned the children suffer the most. It is time to stop playing numbers game and realise that these are people's lives we are talking about when talking about the unfairness of the criminal justice process and the overrepresentation of black people in prisons.

There need to be progress on the ground. There need to be a reduced number of black people send to prison. More black people need to be able to feel confident of the criminal justice system. Prison is an extreme punishment in UK and should be used only in extreme cases. What is needed is a Criminal Justice System which is seen as fair, which is colour, class and gender blind; otherwise it will continue to be seen as a tool of oppression.

Ruth Chigwada-Bailey is a consultant criminologist, director of Criminology in the Millennium and criminology in Millennium Publications.

For more information on black women's experiences of the Criminal Justice System visit:
www.criminologyinmillennium.co.uk