A case study on the murder of Zahid Mubarak, in a young offenders institute feltham - Essay Example

Black inmates felt that they were being “stereotyped” as being more aggressive and violent and blamed for bullying than their white counterparts. There was also an uncanny tendency among the prison officials to think of “Blacks” as either drug peddlers or drug takers and there was twice the tendency for them to be tested for drugs than the white inmates. Many of the Black inmates complained that the Black and Ethnic minorities prison officers “turned a blind eye” to this racial discrimination in order to fit in or be in par with the white officers.

Stewart was shifted to Feltham just at a time when it was overcrowded with prisoners and it did not have the necessary staff to cope with the ever growing population. On the whole Feltham was being asked to do too much with too little resources. Moreover the prison also suffered badly from institutional racism and the staff was poorly equipped to deal with it. The case highlights the brutal character of Juvenile detention as well as the criminal tactics used by the ever-growing number of alienated and disturbed youth.

Feltham is a prime example of the corrosive atmosphere exists throughout Britain’s penal system, especially in youth detention Institutions. In March 1999, Sir David Ramsbotham, the chief inspector of prisons surveyed the deplorable conditions at Feltham and stated that it was “totally unacceptable”. The care of those in remand and those boys below eighteen were described by him as “institutionalized deprivation”. More than 5,000 prisoner to prisoner assaults had taken place over the last ten years.

Feltham had seven suicides within the institution and four governors in the past six months. Further investigation by Ramsbotham revealed that young prisoners were spending long hours in their cells. The average activity time spent by the detainees was around 15 hours a week. Out of