'Trying to get it right'
| Author | Jon Spencer,Ilona Haslewood-Pócsik,Emily Smith |
| Published date | 01 May 2009 |
| Date | 01 May 2009 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895809102552 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Criminology & Criminal Justice
© The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and Permissions:
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ISSN 1748–8958; Vol: 9(2): 187–206
DOI: 10.1177/1748895809102552
‘Trying to get it right’:
What prison staff say about implementing race
relations policy
JON SPENCER, ILONA HASLEWOOD-PÓCSIK AND
EMILY SMITH
University of Manchester, UK
Abstract
Race Relations in English and Welsh prisons have a history of critical
events and flawed management. There is evidence that at the policy
level the Prison Service has responded to policy directives to improve
race relations. This article is based on research that examined the
relationship between national legislation, Prison Service policy
and practice. The focus of the article is the views of operational
Prison Service staff, revealing the complexities in implementing
race relations policy in the testing prison environment. The article
concludes that the policies implemented by the Prison Service
appear, theoretically, to be a rational and appropriate means of
achieving positive race relations. Operationally the Prison Service has
experienced the challenges of the prison setting, the need for proper
resources and the stresses and strains in meeting the demands of its
own race relations policy.
Key Words
policy implementation • prison management • race relations
Introduction
Race relations in British prisons have been a significant issue over more than
three decades with allegations of racism against staff, poor practice and
a systemic failure by the Prison Service to protect Black and Minority 187
Criminology & Criminal Justice 9(2)188
Ethnic (BME) prisoners (Bowling and Phillips, 2002). There have been a
number of critical incidents and as a response to these the Government has
insisted that the Prison Service take action in order to confront racism, rectify
poor practice and flawed management; for example the implementation of
the recommendations from Her Majesty’s Prison Service and Commission for
Racial Equality Joint Action Plan (2003) which came about as a consequence
of the Commission’s inquiry into the murder of Zahid Mubarek. In March
2000 Zahid Mubarek was due to be released from HMP Feltham, he was
serving a short sentence and it was his first time in prison. On the night
before he was released he was murdered by Robert Stewart with whom
he was sharing a cell. The subsequent police investigation discovered that
Stewart was known to be violent, to hold racist views and suffered from
mental health problems. A number of questions were asked of the Prison
Service:
How had Stewart come to share a cell with someone from an ethnic minority?
What exactly had been known about Stewart? Had any information about
him been passed to the wing? And had any assessment been carried out of the
risk Stewart might have posed to any prisoner who shared a cell with him?
(Stationery Office, 2006: xvii)
The subsequent inquiry into the death of Zahid Mubarek concluded that:
‘There are many lessons to be learned from Feltham’s decline, but the most
important is that population pressures and under-staffing can combine to
undermine the decency agenda and compromise the Prison Service’s ability
to run prisons efficiently’ (Stationery Office, 2006: 650). The failure of
the Prison Service to provide a safe environment was fully accepted by the
Director General of the Prison Service, Martin Narey who at the time of
Zahid Mubarek’s murder wrote to his parents stating: ‘You had a right
to expect us to look after Zahid safely and we have failed. I am very, very
sorry’ (Stationery Office, 2006: xvii).
There have been a number of organizational and managerial changes to
the structure of the Prison Service over the past decade, some of which have
been the result of the inquiry into Zahid Mubarek’s death and others that
reflect the Government’s approach to public sector accountability. Each
prison is now subject to internal Prison Service scrutiny and review measured
against a series of ‘Performance Standards’ that cover some 65 areas of
Prison Service activity (Prison Service, 2004). The Performance Standards
Manual details how the standards are to be evaluated at the local and
national level. These measures have brought the Prison Service in line with
many other public sector agencies that are measured and evaluated against
a set of national criteria; the Performance Standards include a four page
detailed standard on Race Equality (Prison Service, 2004). This managerial
approach to evaluating performance with regard to race equality mirrors
the broader social changes in the area of race relations with a particular
focus on race relations training in the public sector. These factors have
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