“SHAMEFUL” new evidence reveals today that over half of children behind bars are from black or other minority backgrounds – the highest level since records began in 2001.

Campaigners are warning that institutional racism, cuts and private prisons have fuelled this disproportionate number of non-white kids being incarcerated.

A survey by prison inspectors in England and Wales over 2017-18 has found that 51 per cent of boys in young offenders institutes (YOIs) were non-white.

They are far more likely to be jailed than white children, raising concerns about racism in the courts, police and wider society.

Teenage boys aged 15 to 18 can be remanded or serve sentences in a network of six YOIs.

There was also a disproportionate number, 42 per cent, of non-white kids in Secure Training Centres, where boys and girls as young as 12 can be incarcerated.

A staggering number, 44 per cent, of the children at these sites said they had also been in local authority care.

There were concerns as well over safeguarding and use of force. The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke, said that “too many children … report having felt unsafe since coming into custody.”

Over a third of children across all centres felt unsafe while locked up, and at least half said they had been “physically restrained.”

Howard League for Penal Reform chief executive Frances Crook said the disproportionate numbers of non-white kids in custody was “disturbing.”

She added: “What does it say about the prisons and secure training centres that they are not keeping children safe?

“We ought to be discussing how children are flourishing, how they are being cared for and supported to ensure that they go on to lead healthy and positive lives.”

Ken Hinds, chair of Haringey Stop and Search Group, told the Star: “It’s shameful on Britain that they chose to build more private prisons rather than schools, universities and decent housing.

“And then they wonder why we have such a high number in custody, but the future outside doesn’t look too bright for young black men.

“It’s troubling that so little has changed in the last 14 years. If you are black you are going to be more harshly treated by the criminal justice system at every level.”

Several of the youth custody centres are run by private companies like G4S.

Institute of Race Relations director Liz Fekete said: “There’s a crisis in how young black men in particular are perceived by society and not enough reflection on the causes that contribute to it.

“There’s been a massive rollback in understanding institutional or structural racism, and people are going back to terms like unconscious bias.”

She warned that stop and search, joint enterprise laws and school exclusions were all contributing to the “alienation and marginalisation” of young black men.