Beyond a numbers game explores how we can improve the recruitment, retention and progression of racially minoritised staff and how to build inclusive working cultures across the Criminal Justice System. This report comes at a time of unprecedented scrutiny for our criminal justice system in relation to its record, practice and impacts on racially minoritised communities. Recent thematic reviews from Inspectorate bodies, an inability to make sustained progress in addressing racial disproportionality and the crisis across policing, which has recently culminated in Baroness Casey’s Review of the Met Police have made this matter all more urgent.
In this response to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing (CoP)’s Police Race Action Plan, we welcome the commitment of the police to becoming an anti-racist police service that is trusted by Black people, and the positive direction set out in the Plan. However, we have also highlighted our overall and fundamental concerns that the Plan overlooks key areas that would improve policing for Black people, such as a specific focus on improving Black detainees’ experiences of police custody and addressing Black women and girls’ experiences of policing. We also state that the Plan’s ambitions are undermined by recent policy decisions to extend some police powers that disproportionately affect Black people. Our members are also concerned that the plan has not been co-produced with Black communities.
The report highlights the urgent need for the sector to provide greater opportunities for people with lived experience to move into paid employment, leadership and influencing positions in the sector.
It makes a range of recommendations for government departments, commissioners, public bodies, employers, the Charity Commission, criminal justice funders, universities and the inspectorates.
On 18 July 2019, the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) held a roundtable discussion on the topic of diversity in the criminal justice workforce, hosted by the Ministry of Justice. This note provides a summary of the key points for the CJA to investigate further over the coming months. Where possible, specific examples of emerging practice are highlighted.
This discussion paper considers the development of criminal justice in England over the last 20 years, the policies leading to the current situation, and the issues facing the coalition government. It then reviews the implications of the period of austerity expected in all areas of public expenditure.
This briefing recognises a fresh approach to criminal justice policy is long overdue and suggests twelve problem areas within the adult criminal justice system that need urgent attention in the new parliament.