Let's get it right: race and justice 2000 - Nacro

Let’s get it rightUSING MONITORING: EXAMPLEOF GOOD LOCAL PRACTICEIn a busy local prison, the Race RelationsLiaison Officer noticed from themonitoring of work allocations that noblack prisoners ever seemed to work inthe kitchens, even though this was quitea desirable job. He devised a very shortquestionnaire asking prisoners aboutthis. It turned out that there was noserious underlying cause but that mostblack prisoners were not interested in thetype of food being prepared. The prisonwas able to introduce a Caribbean diet onone or two days a month and more blackprisoners started to apply to work in thekitchen. This was a simple step whichdidn’t take money, or much time, butthought, imagination and sensitivity touser needs. This should be whatmonitoring is about.can help to restore confidence in the fairness of thecriminal justice system. And for staff who have to collectthe figures, it must be very frustrating if they never havethe opportunity to see, or better still discuss, the results.Monitoring needs to be systematic and continuous, andreviewed each year as a matter of routine so that anytrends can be identified and comparisons with previousyears be made.The way monitoring is used varies greatly, from complexanalysis done at the Home Office to small local initiativesthat are just as or even more important.A 1997 Home Office report on ‘Ethnic Monitoring inPolice Forces’ looked at the use of ethnic monitoring inthe police. It found differences between forces in theextent to which they collected ethnic monitoring statistics,and that ‘most police officers appear to view ethnicmonitoring as irrelevant at best; at worst it was resentedand/or feared as a stick deliberately designed to beat themwith’.It concludes that the value of ethnic monitoring will beshown over the next few years, as trends can be identifiedand information compared with what happens in the CPSand the courts. It stresses the value of monitoring at force,or local level. On its own, statistical data cannot be usedto assess the extent of direct discrimination. But it hasother values. According to the report:‘Monitoring may be able to track the impact ofwider developments and priorities in policing toensure that these do not unnecessarily furtherdamage police relations with ethnic minorities.‘Monitoring should help improve existing relationsbetween the police and ethnic minorities:a) by making the police more aware of thepatterns of their decision-making – in particular,of whether they use their powers more stringentlyon certain groups than others, and theconsequences of this; andb) by providing the peg for a dialogue between thepolice and ethnic minorities locally about issues ofmutual concern.’This applies just as much to other agencies in the criminaljustice process. It is particularly relevant, for example, tothe new proposals in the Crime and Disorder Act – suchas curfews and anti-social behaviour orders, wheremonitoring from the outset will be important to ensurethey do not have an unfair impact on any group.At a regional level, Area Criminal Justice LiaisonCommittees should ensure that their member agenciesmake use of monitoring results at local level. They canalso be used to start and maintain a consultation withlocal communities, and to enhance local accountability.A similar Home Office study of monitoring in all criminaljustice agencies is now under way.Much work is under way to introduce comprehensiveethnic monitoring across the whole criminal justicesystem. Effective information technology systems areneeded and are being developed by the relevantgovernment departments.18