Criminal Justice Board Race and Diversity Sub Group
What is it?
The Cheshire Criminal Justice Board Race Sub Group brings together senior members of the Police, Probation, Crown Prosecution Service, Magistrates Courts Committee, Youth Offending Teams and Cheshire, Halton and Warrington Race Equality Council. The members are drawn from executive level in the constituent services and their job is on behalf of the Criminal Justice Board to promote trust and confidence amongst black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in Cheshire, Halton and Warrington in the Criminal Justice System. It has been recognised for some time that members of these minority communities can feel disadvantaged in the Criminal Justice process. The core objective of the group is to review how each of the constituent Criminal Justice Agencies are performing in relation to race issues, take action where necessary and promote better understanding and confidence amongst BME communities. Ultimately our goal is to ensure that people from these minority communities receive a fair and equitable service and are not subject to discrimination in the criminal justice system. This applies whether they are victims of crimes or racist incidents or are suspects or defendants in the Criminal Justice process.
What does the Race and Diversity Sub Group do?
The group meets quarterly and reviews in detail what has been happening across the Criminal Justice System in Cheshire, Halton and Warrington as it affects people from the BME communities. Areas that the group scrutinises include:
- Reports of racist incidents or hate crimes made to the police either directly or through third parties.
- Numbers of racially motivated crimes
- Outcomes of these reports in terms of people brought to justice and offenders being identified
- Crown Prosecution Service cases proceeded with, conviction rates and support provided for victims of racist or hate crime incidents
- Probation Service bail and remand in custody rates compared to white offenders
- The objective in reviewing statistics in these areas is to identify and act upon any significant differences to the way in which people from minority ethnic communities are either victimised or treated in the Criminal Justice System compared to the white population. The effectiveness of Criminal Justice Agencies in terms of outcomes when racist incidents and crimes are reported is also carefully scrutinised
As well as monitoring these specific elements of Criminal Justice System, there is also an internal focus to ensure that CJS agencies are open and reach people from BME communities, accordingly working with the Race Equality Council vacancies and recruiting processes are monitored in each of the Criminal Justice Agencies to ensure that we better promote the opportunities that are available to people from BME communities. By having more people from BME communities working within the Criminal Justice System confidence in those communities will improve. As well as an ongoing monitoring responsibility, to identify any areas of concern, further research is also commissioned and action taken where needed. Examples include where reporting rates for racial incidents are very low and that this may be down to a lack of confidence and understanding amongst local minority communities of the support that they should get from the Criminal Justice Agencies when they report racist incidents. Successful prosecutions of racists is also actively publicised to act as a deterrent to others and reassure minority communities that we will act positively. The Board's Race and Diversity action plan can be viewed on the downloads section of this site.