Disability, Mental Health and Criminal Justice System

This content explores the relationship between disability, mental health, and the criminal justice system. It discusses the challenges faced by women in prison, including self-initiated deaths and unmet mental health needs. It also examines the overrepresentation of ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system and the impact of hate crimes in the UK.

DISABILITY, MENTAL
HEALTH AND CRIMINAL
JUSTICE SYSTEM
H1801219

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
BLOG 1...........................................................................................................................................1
Women death in prison................................................................................................................1
BLOG 2...........................................................................................................................................3
Ethnic Minorities and the Criminal Justice System.....................................................................3
BLOG 3...........................................................................................................................................5
Hate crime in UK.........................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

BLOG 1
Women death in prison
Evidence have provided details that in year 2016 there were about 12 self-initiated deaths in
England women prison. This number was highest number of death which were recorded since
the year 2004. The number of tragic deaths has been increased and in response to these tragic
deaths the independent advisory panel on deaths in custody started beginning a rapid information
gathering related to reason for deaths (Bronson and Sufrin, 2019). The advisory board discussed
and also the views were being taken from female offenders related to how they can be engaged
in preventing suicide and self-harm so that the women in prison can kept safe. There was a
commitment made by professionals in this field related to preventing suicide and also safe harm
which is been caused by women safe. The reason for sharp increase in death of women was been
considered and also the reasons were kept in custody. The respondents have given five main
reasons. There has been a reduction in staffing levels which has been combined with loss of
experienced and also the staff cannot be trusted. The vacancies in treating the women with
mental health inside cell is also less.
There is also an unmet requirement of treating mental health, drug and alcohol treatments
needs. Use of drugs is also increasing and they have also become victim of bullying and debt in
custody (Breaz, 2018). This has led to an increase in vulnerability of women and also because of
this they are in high danger. It has also been evaluated that the mental health drug and alcohol
needs of women inside cell is not been met, because of this there has been an increase in the
vulnerable behaviour. This will assist in meeting out mental health drug and alcohol needs and
also if this is not being met the self-initiated death rates will be increased. The death inside of
prison is also been increasing because so many women inside cells. The women who are dying in
prison are less visible also it has been analysed that the funds which are been given to take care
of women inside of cell is not been used adequately. Research done for women in prison has
provided the details that most of the women also fear that they will be homeless when been free.
This can also be taken as one of the major reason for women inside prison. All these reasons
must be taken care of and also proper investigation must be done. The women only support
services must work adequately so that number of women who are dying inside cell can be
lowered down. Recommendations regarding meeting unmet needs of women should be also be
given to the Ministers about policy makers and operational leads across the department so that
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women can be kept safe and also they can improvise their working on women safety. The reports
about women in prison have also provided the details that recently there were 19 women who
died inside cell. So this matter was being taken beyond custody and they should make sure that
no women is vulnerable and is at high risk of danger because of which they commit suicide.
There are various factors because of which the number of deaths of women inside prison is been
increased. The major element is insufficient attention which leads to preventative work and also
the separation from family can lead to women going for suicide. It has also been analysed that
there are also various concerns which were been raised that the providers lack in providing care
to women in prison and also because of this they are been struggling. The inequality also exists
while treating the women in prison. There are chances that the mentally disturbed women are not
provided with equal care and concerns.
The staff members are being reduced and also they are not being skilled which has laid
negative impact on mind of women. This means that complex needs of women that includes
mental health, drug and alcohol needs are not being met and women with trauma also require
more gender aware care. Reduction in staff members with such skills and unskilled staff member
cannot meet their demand which led them to suicide. The ability of prison governors is also low.
This has led to insufficient building of staff and also because of this they are not being able to
maintained the women in their custody (Tadič, 2018). There are also no trusting relationships
which leads to adequate assistance to women in cell. All these factors are being leading to
women been engaged in doing suicide. The mental health care and treatment which is been
provided for addictions are been overly variable and also there is a need for greater consistency
in design, so that the acceptable standards are been met. It has also been analysed that transfer of
information between agencies and also between prison should be improved so that the women in
cell or prison can be kept safe. This will assist in making sure that applied standards are been met
(Bartlett and Hollins, 2018).
The Samaritan listeners and insiders must need to inspired so that better support and care is
being provided and given. There should also better and adequate family contact so that the
females in prison can be kept safe. Evidence has provided the details that prison arrangements
such as technology, location and other visiting arrangements are made worse for women than
men. It has also been evaluated that too many of women are been released without any adequate
support. They fear of getting homeless after getting free because of which they option for
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suicide. It has also been analysed that proper contact with family is been made so that they do
not be involved in doing suicide. In order to lower down the rate of suicide inside prison, the
community needs to ensure that adequate information is been given to courts so that they can be
involved in making sure that the vulnerability and safeguarding concerns are being overcome.
This will assist in enhancing the lives of women inside prison and also it will assist in reducing
the number of women inside prison. It has also been analysed that proper legislations should also
be made for safety of women.
BLOG 2
Ethnic Minorities and the Criminal Justice System
Ethnic minority refers to group of people who are different in terms of race or colour or
also in terms of national, religious or cultural origin from the dominant group in country in
which they live. Minority people in UK includes Indians, Pakistanis, Black British/African/Afro-
Caribbean, Bangladeshis, Chinese. On the basis of religion minority religion in UK includes
Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews and Buddhists (Bosworth, M., Parmar, A. and Vázquez, Y. eds.,
2018 Hayward and et.al., 2018).
Criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institution that works with
aim to provide rehabilitation to offenders and prevention of other crimes and also provide moral
support to criminals. In this system primary institutions are police, prosecution and defense
lawyers, courts and prison.
There are several reasons because of which minority group are in a state of vulnerability
and these reasons include discrimination and exclusion from majority group and they also
struggle to get access to human rights. Minority group is also treated unequally and they have
less power over their lives and are considered subordinate from majority group in a country. This
is the reason that they are likely to be unable to use their rights and powers regarding criminal
justice system in a country. Regarding ethnic minorities and criminal justice system, in 2019
people from Black, Asian and Chinese and other background were over represented as
defendants (a person who has been accused of committing a crime). The reason behind this was
that people from these ethnic groups made up disproportionate share of arrested and carried
through prosecution, conviction and imprisonment stage. Insights of House of Commons Library
suggests that offenders from minority background receives longer custodial sentences and the
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reason behind this can also be higher rate of 'not guilty' pleading made by minority group
(Ethnicity and the criminal justice system: What does recent data say on over-representation?,
2020). Lammy Reviews outline that young offenders have decreased from a decade earlier
however proportion of young offenders from minorities have increasing disturbingly. Lammy
Review also states that over representation of individuals from these minority groups have
resulted in trust deficit and this is also costing taxpayers £300 million each year. Minority group
defendants also do not believe that pleading guilty will deliver less punitive treatment. This
means that minority people do not believe in pleading guilty and do not trust in this system.
Lammy Reviews also states that best way to ensure fair, equal treatments for everyone is to make
decision-making a subject to scrutiny- helping identify and eliminate bias at source (Lammy
publishes historic review, 2017).
Insights from House of Common Library states that half of the convictions from of Black
offenders were for Drug offences and possession of weapons. As of March 2020, 2% of
population in prison was from these minority groups (Ethnicity and the criminal justice system:
What does recent data say on over-representation?, 2020).
Insights from House of Commons Library and from Lammy Review it was identified that
Ethnic Minority and Criminal Justice system puts ethnic minority is at a state of vulnerability in
Justice System. This is because in many of the faces of criminal justice system number of people
from these minority groups are higher compared to majority group. This has also affected trust of
people and they do not plea guilty and do not believe that pledging guilty will have any impact
on punishment that they are getting. In addition to this average custodial sentence length for
minority offenders is 27.1 months whereas it is 19.5 months for white offenders. ACSL is rising
in general and for white offenders it is 4.9 months and concerned with minority offenders rise
has been steeper which is 8.0 months from 2009 to 2019.
This means that there are several ways in which it can be said that minority groups are at
risk when it comes to Criminal Justice System. This is because in most of the context they are
being treated differently from white offenders and those who are in majority. Vulnerability of
minority regarding Criminal Justice System is when one particular group is treated differently
and when justice system becomes harsh towards particular group of people living in a country
(Bosworth, Parmar and Vázquez, 2018).
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Insights discussed above also give ideas for different considerations such as why offenders from
ethnic minorities are higher. There can be reasons because of which offenders from ethnic
minorities are higher such as biased behaviour and treatment towards them which causes
psychosocial issues and leads them towards committing crime. This can be reason that most of
offenders from ethnic minority were convicted for possession of weapons. The reason for this is
to deal with inappropriate behaviour that happens with them such as discrimination and
exclusion. In addition to this, when people from these groups identify and experience difficulty
in gaining access to human rights, it can also lead them to commit offences and this lead to
increase in offences by ethnic minorities. People from ethnic minorities when find it difficult to
access human rights, this lead them towards using other means of gaining access such as use of
weapon or in an offensive manner (Cunneen, Goldson and Russell, 2018). This is the reason that
people from ethnic minorities are convicted for possession of weapon. Another key offence that
is done by people of ethnic minority is Drug offence and this can also be because of partial
treatment towards them in society which leads to using drugs to deal with stress which is one of
the common cause for drug consumption.
This means that racism and discrimination towards ethnic minority can lead to aggression
in people of such minority and later it takes form of offences by them. Later, they are also not
treated equally in criminal justice system and this creates vulnerability and risk for such people
who are part of such ethnic minorities. It requires that such minorities are treated well and all
human rights should be accessible by such minorities and later they should also be treated fairly
and equitably by criminal justice system, this will make positive impact and will contribute in
reducing offences from people of ethnic minorities (Bosworth, Parmar and Vázquez, 2018).
BLOG 3
Hate crime in UK
Hate crime refers to any criminal offense that is perceived by victim or any other person,
to have been encouraged because of hostility and prejudice based on race or perceived race of a
person. In addition to this hate crime also perceived to be motivated for prejudice based on
religion, sexual orientation, disability and any crime motivated by hostility or prejudice against a
person who is transgender or is perceived as transgender. In context of Hate Crime all hate crime
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are not criminal offences but it is important for police to record such cases and crimes (Lumsden,
Goode and Black, 2019). There are different types of Hate Crimes, that are-
Physical assault- This involves using violence and bodily harm which can be common assault,
actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm.
Verbal abuse- For minority groups verbal abuse, and calling name is very common and
extremely unpleasant experience.
Incitement to hatred- This happens when someone acts in a way that causes threat and that act
is aimed at stirring up hatred. This act can be in form of words, pictures, videos, music and
website information.
Data from 2013 to 2020 shows that hate crimes are increasing every year in UK in 2013
number of hate crime recorded by police was around 40000 which increased to above 100000 in
2020. Crime recorded in 2020 were 105,090 and this number was 8 percent increase from 2019
in which total hate crimes recorded were 97446 offences. In this increasing hate crime is also a
result of improvement in recording of crime by police. In addition to this certain events also
contributed in increase in hate crimes. These events include EU Referendum and terrorist attack
in 2017. However, earlier hate crimes were because of race hate crimes and these crimes
accounted for around 72% and there was 6 percent increase in this hate crime. In this religious
hate crime fell by around 5 percent of total hate crime. Hate crime based on sexual orientation
increased from 19 percent and hate crimes for disability increased by 9 percent and other than
this, transgender identity hate crimes increased by 16 percent. In overall hate crimes that were
recorded half of them were for public order offences and around 38% were for violence against
person offences (Hate crime, England and Wales, 2019 to 2020, 2020).
Religious hate crimes fell by 5 percent in which hate crime recorded for religious hate fell from
7203 to 6822.
Following is a figure that outlines hate crimes recorded from 2015-2016 to 2019-2020 and this
involves percentage of change in 2018-2019 to 2019-2020.
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This means that only hate crimes based on religion have reduced among all factors
causing hate crime in UK. In this increase in hate crimes on the basis of race have increased but
from hate crimes recorded in 2018-2019 and before that increase in percentage is comparatively
less. Similarly, in all other types of hate crimes percentage of increase is comparatively less
compared to year 2018-2019 and before that (Hate crime, England and Wales, 2019 to 2020,
2020).
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Illustration 1: Hate Crimes in UK

This figure outlines that police recorded case for violence against person and public order
offences have increased compared to hate crime.
Regarding vulnerability and risk, in March 2020 it was recorded that where perceived religion of
victim was recorded half of the hate crime offences were targeted against Muslims and total
number of offences against Muslims were 3089. Followed by this, next most commonly targeted
religion was Jewish people and number of total number of crimes recorded was 1205 offences
around 19 percent of all hate related crimes (Hate crime, England and Wales, 2019 to 2020,
2020).
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Illustration 2: Hate crime in UK

Above figure suggests that on the basis of religion based crimes Muslim and Jewish
people are at risk and are in state of vulnerability (Hate crime, England and Wales, 2019 to 2020,
2020).
Following figure outlines Hate crime on the basis of type of offences and number of hate
crimes are-
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Illustration 3: Religion based Hate crime

Figure outlines that hate crime for public order have the highest number of hate crime
recorded and second highest case recorded is violence against the person (Hate crime, England
and Wales, 2019 to 2020, 2020).
Different figures and data outlines that there are several groups in UK that are at risk and
are vulnerable because of Hate Crime. This involves personal characteristics of individual as
well as their religion and cultural factors (Hall, 2019). This is very important that different
actions are taken by legislation so that these crimes can be reduced and ultimately eliminated
from country.
Hate crimes are extreme form of prejudice and are mainly made in course of social and
political context. Public and political discourse can devalue members of unfamiliar group. This
can lead to perception of offenders that their livelihood or way of life threatened by demographic
changes. Offenders who undertake hate crime cannot be motivated by hate, but they are
motivated by far, ignorance and anger (The Psychology of Hate Crimes, 2021). This can lead to
dehumanisation of unfamiliar groups and to targeted aggression.
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Illustration 4: Hate Crimes in UK

Regardless of the cause or reason because of which hate crimes take place its effects are
very bad. They lead to victimisation of people and groups by violent hate crimes and results in
psychological distress of people and group who are victimised through hate crime. In this victims
of crime are bias-motivated and are highly likely to experience post-traumatic stress and safety
concerns, depression, anxiety and anger (Chakraborti, 2018). Effect of hate crime includes all
type of negative impact on individual who get victimised and along with this, it is also not in
favour of criminal because they also become criminals and are most likely punished by
regulations and laws.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bartlett, A. and Hollins, S., 2018. Challenges and mental health needs of women in prison. The
British Journal of Psychiatry, 212(3), pp.134-136.
Bosworth, M., Parmar, A. and Vázquez, Y. eds., 2018. Race, criminal justice, and migration
control: Enforcing the boundaries of belonging. Oxford University Press.
Breaz, A.M., 2018. Social Assistance of women in prison. Postmodern Openings, 9(2), pp.1-14.
Bronson, J. and Sufrin, C., 2019. Pregnant women in prison and jail don’t count: Data gaps on
maternal health and incarceration. Public Health Reports, 134(1_suppl), pp.57S-62S.
Chakraborti, N., 2018. Responding to hate crime: Escalating problems, continued
failings. Criminology & Criminal Justice. 18(4). pp.387-404.
Cunneen, C., Goldson, B. and Russell, S., 2018. Human rights and youth justice reform in
England and Wales: A systemic analysis. Criminology & Criminal Justice. 18(4).
pp.405-430.
Hall, E., 2019. A critical geography of disability hate crime. Area. 51(2). pp.249-256.
Hayward, S and et.al., 2018. Factors influencing the higher incidence of tuberculosis among
migrants and ethnic minorities in the UK. F1000Research, 7.
Lumsden, K., Goode, J. and Black, A., 2019. ‘I will not be thrown out of the country because
I’m an immigrant’: Eastern European migrants’ responses to hate crime in a semi-rural
context in the wake of Brexit. Sociological Research Online. 24(2). pp.167-184.
Tadič, D., 2018. Prison, women and prison rules for women. European Journal of Criminology,
p.1477370818788016.
Online
Ethnicity and the criminal justice system: What does recent data say on over-representation?.
2020. [Online]. Available Through: <https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/ethnicity-
and-the-criminal-justice-system-what-does-recent-data-say/>.
Hate crime, England and Wales, 2019 to 2020. 2020. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2019-to-
2020/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2019-to-2020>.
Lammy publishes historic review. 2017. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lammy-publishes-historic-review>.
The Psychology of Hate Crimes. 2021. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.apa.org/advocacy/interpersonal-violence/hate-crimes>.
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