A (Slightly) More Visible Ethnic Minority - Travellers In Prison
A (Slightly) More Visible Ethnic Minority- Travellers In Prison
Over five years ago when I first started going into prisons as part of the Traveller Equality Project, there was an attitude amongst many Travellers of ‘just keeping your head down’. And who could blame a man or woman for not wanting to attract attention to their ethnicity given that hostility to their background was often at least a factor in them ending up in jail. Of course, we all know that we ourselves are responsible for our own actions. But being called a ‘dirty gypo’ in the middle of a school assembly or ‘a pikey’ in the local and national newspapers does not cultivate a respect for society and its laws. Many Travellers routinely prevented from entering pubs and restaurants (as I and a number of Traveller friends were recently), are a little cynical about the notion that the law is there for everyone.
However, in prisons in England and Wales things are different. Many prisons run regular Traveller Groups, have Traveller Reps, and hold Traveller History Month celebrations in June. Focussed Traveller literacy and training initiatives exist in a number of prisons. Five years ago, there were about seven regular Traveller Groups running in prisons in England and Wales. Now the figure is closer to fifty Traveller Groups. I am aware of prisons that have campaigned aggressively to stamp out racial name calling by staff and prisoners with regard to Travellers, even disciplining officers in response to prisoner complaints.
At a national level, the criminal justice system has made big strides in addressing Traveller issues in prison. Two years ago NOMS with National Prison Radio established ‘Open Road’ a monthly radio show primarily for Gypsies and Travellers but also to promote cultural awareness amongst non-Traveller prisoners. Last year, HM Inspectorate of Prisons published a report ‘People in Prison: Gypsies, Romany and Travellers’ which detailed the challenges facing Travellers in prison and made recommendations. Likewise, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman published ‘Deaths of Travellers in Prison’ in January of this year which again identifies the main issues facing Travellers in prison and recommends many of the steps advocating by the Traveller Equality Project over the past years.
Despite the cuts in staff and resources in recent years many Traveller Groups have survived and even flourished. If you read recent HM Inspectorate reports of London prisons for example, amidst the often dire picture you will see that support for ‘Traveller prisoners was good’ (Unannounced Inspection of HMP Pentonville, 23rd June 2015).
However, there is one major obstacle to making serious progress in achieving equality of opportunity within prisons for Gypsies and Travellers and that is proper, effective monitoring. Why does monitoring matter? It matters for a number of reasons. If a group doesn’t exist on the prison database then the prison has little duty to make provision for that grouping. This is bad for the particular group in that it doesn’t get the assistance that might help in terms of say, rehab, training and mental health provision. Poor monitoring of an ethnic group is also bad for prisons because when a prison ignores the needs of a group, that group are likely to be resentful and less likely to engage in rehab.
Monitoring is a way of ensuring that the needs of a prisoner group are met by the prison system and if these needs are not met by the prison system then we can at least call the system to account for failing in its duty. Otherwise, as our campaign slogan goes ‘If you are not counted, you won’t count!’
As of 2011, the prison monitoring system P-NOMIS, included the monitoring of ‘W3 Irish Travellers / Gypsies’ on the system. And yet in 2015, many prison staff and Traveller prisoners are unaware of the category. I am regularly met with confused looks from staff and prisoners when I mention the category ‘W3’ in Traveller Group meetings.
A few weeks ago, I was in a prison with over 1200 prisoners in an area with a large population of Travellers. There were six Travellers at this first Traveller Group meeting, none were registered as W3 prisoners before the meeting. Most shockingly of all not one prisoner in the entire prison was registered as ‘W3’. Given the fact that many Travellers have distinctive literacy, family and health needs, this seems to be a shameful waste of an opportunity. If a prison doesn’t know its prisoners how can if positively engage with them? As literacy problems are faced by almost 70% of Traveller prisoners, how can a prison provide proper rehab without knowing the size of its Traveller population?
If prisons wish to capitalise on the huge interest amongst Gypsies and Travellers in prison for self-empowerment, for education and for training, then they need to pro-actively encourage self –identification. The HM Inspectorate report last year, using its own figures, stated that the Traveller population of prisons is 5% of the overall figure, 1 in every 20 prisoners. 5% is a significant slice of the expenditure on education, training, healthcare and rehab in prisons. All the more reason that now is the time that every Gypsy, Romany and Irish Traveller in prison stand up and be counted - Register today as ‘W3 Irish Traveller / Gypsy’ with your Personal Officer or Equalities Officer.
Further advice for staff and prisoners is available from:
Traveller Equality Project
52 Camden Square
London NW1 9XB
OR
travellers@irishchaplaincy.org.uk