‘Gypsy, Roma and Travellers prisoners' voices are seldom listened to’ – says FFT
Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) have been working on a two-year project to better understand the impact of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) on Romany Gypsy, Roma, Irish Traveller and New Traveller young adults and their families.
“We have visited prisons across the country, talking to people about their experiences throughout the Criminal Justice System, including with family members,” says Sam Worrall, Criminal Justice Policy Officer at FFT
The project, supported by the Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A) and the Barrow Cadbury Trust, aims to amplify the voices of young adults from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities involved in the CJS to be heard by policy makers, commissioners and service leaders, to address practical changes to better support rehabilitation, and desistance from crime.
Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller people are the most disproportionately represented groups, making up nearly 10% of the youth estate (HMIP, 2021) and 5% in adult prisons (HMIP, 2014), despite being just 0.5% of the overall population of England and Wales. Official records are often a significant undercount, and these groups are less likely to ask for support in any stage of the CJS, with their voices being seldom listened to.
It is clear practical advice and support are severely lacking, with harsher sentencing conditions such as ‘remand over bail’ being disproportionally handed down to Romany, Roma and Traveller people,” said Sam Worrall.
“Most of all, lifelong exclusion, discrimination and stigmatisation from wider society contribute significantly to negative confrontations throughout the CJS pipeline.”
By Sam Worrall FFT for TT News
As part of the prison visits and to break the ice, Sam Worrall encouraged Gypsy, Roma and Traveller prisoner groups to create artwork based around FFT’s GRT History month theme of ‘family’. Some of the results of that are shown in the images used in this article, as well as the two poems below by George at HMP Frankland.
God’s Love Token
We are here for a good reason:
Proven.
To be
God’s love token.
To travel.
To work.
To play.
Living a nomadic way,
Is to fulfil our aims everyday!
To our family,
We bind.
And in our love,
We find,
Our blessings
In kind.
Please,
Keep this
True Reality in mind!
A Canal “Boater” Girl
On a journey,
Enjoys,
The water swirl.
She’s ever so glad
Owning a red rose,
To loving remember,
Her mum and dad.
George says about this poem that “Being able to travel is a gift….when travelling everyone has a rosy idea of where they are going to and perhaps what to achieve.”