英国の刑務所におけるエスニック問題

抄録

England experienced mass immigration from Commonwealth countries in the post-Second World War period because of the shortage of labor in England. Although immigration control has become more strict since the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962, the total ethnic minority population of England has been increasing because of natural growth (high fertility rate) and net immigration. At present, the ethnic minority population accounts for about 5.5 percent of England's total population. As far as the prison population is concerned, 17 percent of the male prison population and 24 percent of the female prison population as of June 30, 1995 were from ethnic minority communities. This data indicates that members of ethnic minority groups are over-represented in prisons relative to their proportion in the population as a whole. Under these circumstances, the Prison Service produced the Race Relations Manual in 1991, aimed at clarifying the Service's race relations policies. This provides a means by which establishments can monitor and improve their performance in implementing the race relations policies, explains the responsibilities of Prison Service staff in this respect, and produces the Race Relations Liaison Officer and the Race Relations Management Team. However, prisoners from ethnic minority backgrounds are still disadvantaged on the grounds of race. A study on race relations in prisons found that there were several cases where ethnic minority inmates were transferred between wings or to another prison in order to maintain good order and discipline despite the fact that both staff and inmates acknowledged that white inmates initiated the conflict. It is said that this kind of racial discrimination is mainly due to the fact that the Prison Service's race relations policies emphasizes the professional behavior expected of the staff without attempting to change underlying attitudes and feelings of the staff.