Quakers call for urgent prison reform
Quakers in Criminal Justice (QICJ) have set out a series of urgent demands for prison reform, including action on the racially discriminatory use of a painful chemical spray on prisoners.
The concerns were included in a joint briefing with the Prison Phoenix Trust to the Criminal Justice Alliance, a network of over 100 organisations, for an upcoming meeting with Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy.
The briefing highlights the disproportionate use of PAVA spray, a chemical incapacitant that causes temporary blindness and intense facial pain, against Black prisoners.
According to Freedom of Information requests, up to April 2020, Black and Black British males made up 13 per cent of the prison population but were involved in 17 per cent of PAVA incidents. By November 2022, that figure had risen to 43 per cent of all deployments.
Despite no proof that PAVA prevents violence, and despite its discriminatory use against Black prisoners, the government has extended it to young offenders, QICJ said.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons found in a 2022 report that officers are more likely to perceive Black prisoners as a physical threat.
QICJ warned that the new Sentencing Act would require robust measures to prevent it becoming discriminatory by defining Black prisoners as higher risk and confining them in custody for longer.
Pressing concerns
Beyond race, the briefing raises several other pressing concerns:
- On trauma, QICJ calls for structured support inside prisons, noting that people who receive such help are 25 per cent less likely to reoffend. Voluntary organisations face significant barriers to delivering these programmes (such as that offered by Rock Pool Life to equip frontline workers to help people affected by psychological trauma) in prisons.
- On probation, QICJ argues that recalls should only happen in cases of serious risk of harm, and that the service must be properly resourced.
- The briefing calls for the reintroduction of dynamic security, building staff-prisoner relationships that generate trust and allow officers to spot trouble early.
- QICJ calls for better support to help disabled prisoners access education and activities, and proper assistance when leaving prison.
Melanie Jameson of QICJ said: “In QICJ we believe that prisoners should be treated with dignity and respect and have the chance to contribute to society on release.
“The government should act on the evidence on rehabilitation, and resource the prison and probation services to deliver it properly."
QICJ is an organisation rooted in the historic Quaker commitment to humane treatment of prisoners.