A LABOUR MP raised concerns today over the “alarming” disproportionate number of black and minority ethnic (BAME) young people held in dire conditions in the youth justice system.

During a justice committee meeting Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter pressed members of HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) and the Youth Justice Board on the dramatic increase in the proportion of BAME youngsters in young offenders’ institutions (YOIs) over the last five years “in light of the bleak conditions.”

It was reported earlier this year that youths in YOIs are often held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, and that they stopped receiving visits and face-to-face education when the coronavirus outbreak began.

HMIP lead inspector for children and young adults Angus Mulready-Jones said that the spotlight on racism brought on by the Black Lives Matter movement has shown the importance of treating BAME people in custody with “equity and fairness.”

But he said that there was “very little space” to work on race issues “until we get time out of cell, interventions and education” for children in YOIs.

Mr Slaughter stressed the “alarming” concern that children in YOIs were “subject to a regime that would not usually be tolerated — and often without contact with their families.” 

Youth Justice Board chairman Keith Fraser said that the need to understand why there is a disproportionality of BAME people in the system was “a priority.”

HMIP’s chief inspector Peter Clarke said that it was frustrating that establishments did not follow up on the inspectors’ recommendations and demands “as thoroughly as they should.”