As Black History month arrives again and the prison rolls out its annual posters of Bob Marley, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King to show its support for its black population, I feel it is important to explain my reality as a black prisoner at HMP Lindholme – a prison which the Chief Inspector of Prisons stated in 2020 did not recognise the needs of black prisoners.
In December 2022 the Chief Inspector published a Thematic Review into The experiences of adult black male prisoners and black prison staff across the whole prison system. This report highlighted how racism was integrally built into policy and manifested in insidious ways, such as black prisoners being labelled as a risk where no evidence existed, other than their skin colour.
The Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) responded with a powerful sounding promise to ‘adopt a zero tolerance approach to racism and discrimination and create an organisation that actually identifies and eradicates the ways racism is built into policies, practices and overall ways of working’.
Sadly, if there was an initial glimmer of hope that the words of HMPPS were not just empty rhetoric, that was forever shattered for me on 18 August 2023 when two prison offender managers told me that my risk level to staff was raised to the highest level – not because of any violence or threats, but because I had engaged in activities such as making complaints, contacting the press, writing for FRFI and applying to the courts to challenge racial discrimination in prison.
If I didn’t know the truth I would have been angered and frustrated in an attempt to break free of this violent label that was being given to me. But I know the truth of the gang matrix, the racist policies and practices of the criminal justice system and the reality of stop-and search, all of which have brought me and many black men to prison.
I am not a violent risk to prison staff, but I am a threat because I aim to challenge the continued hyper-criminalisation of black, mixed and Asian communities within the prison estate. I am a threat because I aim to expose the lie that HMPPS has a zero tolerance to racism, and reveal the truth that HMPPS is racism personified.
HMPPS is one step in the chain of criminalisation, over-policing and the disproportionate incarceration of black people. Just as the report into the death of Stephen Lawrence exposed institutional racism in the police force decades ago, and this racism remains, the 2000 report into the death of Zahid Mubarek in Feltham young offenders’ institute detailed institutional racism in the prison system. Neither the recent Chief Inspector’s Thematic Review nor the HMPPS ‘action plan’ devised in response to that Review offer anything new.
Furthermore, the very same HMPPS which claims it will be taking comprehensive measures to root out systemic racism, when challenged in court proceedings, completely denies that any such racism exists. In the courts, HMPPS claims I am a vexatious litigant whose cases have ‘no merit’, and in prison they claim that I am violent and high risk. I am none of these things. I am a black man who tells the truth about the racist prison system.
Elavi Dowie A0444EF,
HMP LINDHOLME
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 296 October/November 2023
