CONCERNS have been raised about the “disproportionate” number of black and mixed heritage children from Walsall who end up in court.
Walsall Youth Justice Service told the council’s children’s services overview and scrutiny committee more young people from those communities were going through the system than their white counterparts.
At a meeting on Monday (31), service lead Phil Rutherford said work was being carried out to examine and understand the issues that lead to this.
He added the addressing over-representation of black and mixed heritage boys will be a priority for the service.
A report to committee didn’t provide data and Walsall Labour group leader Aftab Nawaz called for specific figures to show the extent of the issue.
He said: “There is a disproportionate, over-representation of people from black and mixed heritage and BAME communities in the system.
“Why does it happen? What the specific issues are in Walsall are about it? Some figures would be good so we can see what the differences are.
“Is there an issue that the system doesn’t understand, the challenges these children face? Is there an issue they don’t have the right representation when they go to court and are in front of a judge?”
Rutherford said factors such as discrimination and experiences in school can lead to teenagers ending up in trouble.
He said: “For black boys and of mixed heritage, their experience of education has been poorer than their white peers.
“So they’ll have higher rates of exclusion, generally – not always – and they’ll have higher issues around SEND, often undiagnosed.
“They will have issues around mental health that haven’t been addressed or identified early enough.
“What happens is they end up in the system with these issues. Each community, each different group will have different journeys, different stories leading up to that point.
“Certainly there is a role around community and trust of authorities including the police and the courts.
“We know often young people who are arrested by police will not always plead guilty for a crime they have done at the earliest opportunity and that may be down to representation.
“If you don’t plead guilty early in the justice system it often means you receive a more serious outcome as a result. You may not receive opportunities for early intervention.
“There are cultural issues around trust that need to be addressed. But the youth justice service alone is not capable of changing that whole system. It can only change small parts and help and influence other parts of it.”
Rutherford said work is being done including programmes with children and families to help them understand their rights around ‘stop and search’.
Officers are also sharing information and analysis with police officers and magistrates to give them more knowledge on the young people.
Councillor Nawaz added: “When we talk to these children, we learn something from them. Whether they’ve had a bad experience at school or issues haven’t been dealt with.
“This isn’t a short term thing. This is something we have to work across a generation to try to fix.
“What I’m looking for is that those messages from the children are fed back so they can try to bring about the change before we get to this stage.”
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)
Michael Gove
Jeremy Hunt