An official Government report has recommended allowing criminals to avoid prosecution by signing up to rehabilitation therapy in order to reduce the number of Black and Minority Ethnic convicts in the prison system.
Led by Labour’s David Lammy — best known for his “hysterical” campaign to overturn the Brexit referendum with a vote in Parliament — the report found criminality is rife in the Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community.
BAME men and women make up 25 per cent of the prison population in England and Wales — and over 40 per cent of young people in custody — despite the fact that only 14 per cent the general population is BAME.
Black people appear to be particularly overrepresented amongst the criminal fraternity, comprising 3 per cent of the general population but accounting for 12 per cent of adult prisoners and more than 20 per cent of youths in custody in 2015/16.
In fact, the report found there is “greater disproportionality in the number of Black people in prisons [in the United Kingdom] than in the United States” — and if it were not for overrepresentation of the BAME community in the criminal justice system, Britain could shut “the equivalent of 12 average-sized prisons” and save around £309 million a year”.
The major concern of Lammy’s report appears to be ensuring that fewer BAME criminals make their way into the prison system.
For example, the report notes that BAME criminals are more likely to be sent to prison — and to receive relatively longer sentences — in part because they are “consistently more likely than White defendants to plead not guilty in court”.
Guilty pleas often result in non-custodial sentences, or can see custodial sentences reduced by up to a third — but BAME criminals often prefer to take their chances with a Not Guilty plea, because of what Lammy describes as a “chronic trust deficit” between BAME criminals and the authorities.
Lammy suggested this “problem” could be tackled by allowing criminals to defer their prosecution; side-stepping court proceedings and a possible criminal record entirely in exchange for undertaking some so-called “restorative justice” scheme, such as anger management classes or drug rehabilitation therapy.
Minister of State for Culture under Tony Blair and Minister of State for Innovation, Universities, and Skills under Gordon Brown, Lammy makes no bones about his strong sense of racial identity, and acts as a champion for identity-based politics in the UK.
“People used to ask, Blair or Brown? I would say no, just black. That is who I am,” he told The Guardian during a recent interview.
“In the end, I am a black man in Britain,” he added. “I am judged in those terms every time I open my mouth.”
Lammy has demonstrated a willingness to judge others in racial terms as well, railing against the appointment of “a white, upper middle-class man” as chair of the Grenfell inquiry.
“I think the victims will also say to themselves when push comes to shove there are some powerful people here – contractors, sub-contractors, local authorities, governments – and they look like this judge,” he claimed.
“Whose side will he be on?”