NEARLY nine in 10 children from London held on remand in prison while they await their trial are from black and ethnic minority backgrounds, according to reports.  

Campaigners say the figures, reported by LBC, are the highest disproportionality rate they have seen in the criminal justice system. 

Children on remand have not been convicted of any crime: judges or magistrates decide whether to grant them bail or hold them in jail while they await trial.

In February, 74 per cent of children held in prisons on remand were black, up from about 60 per cent during most periods in 2020. 

The figures, obtained by Transform Justice through freedom of information requests, also showed that 88 per cent of children on remand in the capital are from ethnic minority backgrounds — people from such backgrounds make up less than half of the capital’s population. 

Transform Justice director Penelope Gibbs said the figures are shocking. 

“It’s probably the highest disproportionality rate that I’ve seen in the whole of the criminal justice system,” she said. 

“We’re talking about children who have not been convicted of a crime and may never be convicted.” 

Ethnic minorities are also over-represented in the general prison population and as defendants: they make up 23 per cent of people arrested, 21 per cent of convictions and 27 per cent of the prison population. This is despite them making up just 16 per cent of the general population in England and Wales. 

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy branded the latest figures a national disgrace.

“The government spends its days denying the existence of structural racism even when the evidence is staring it in the face,” he said.