‘Privileged’ and white keeps you out of jail

Last week at the Old Bailey, Edward Drew, 25, of Wandsworth, who works in sales management at City investment firm M&G, admitted assault and two counts of battery. He and a girlfiend knocked over a drink while gyrating at a City bar. This led to a scuffle during which he threw a glass at someone’s face. The principle victim was covered in blood with a gash on his forehead, while a shard from the shattered glass cut the throat of another victim.The police arrived and arrested him. Drew wept as Recorder Jonathan Cohen spared him a prison term and sentenced him to 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years.

The judge said he weighed up the seriousness of the incident against the effect a prison term would have on Drew’s City career, having heard he would lose his job if was jailed.

“Taking into account your good character and your plea …I have - with considerable hesitation - decided that I can properly suspend the sentence of imprisonment,” he said. He noted Drew had a “privileged background and a lot going for him”.

It is very unlikely that this would be the outcome if Edward Drew had been black, since research undertaken in 2011 by The Guardian showed that black offenders were 38 per cent more likely to be sentenced to prison than white offenders. And with imprisonment, life chances are reduced, particularly the chance of employment. Reoffending is more likely, dependents becoming financially disadvantaged and an all too familiar downward spiral that includes mental health issues and alcohol and substance misuse. Family and friends become bitter and resentful when seeing such unfair severity handed out to a black person.

We are pleased that Recorder Cohen saw good reason to keep young Edward Drew out of prison and in his City job. But contrast this with the case of Shaun Higgins, a black male and in the words of the Birmingham Daily Mail, a ‘dozy burglar’, who was sentenced to five and half years for stealing from a pensioner.

OBV works for a fairer society and greater racial justice…we will keep pushing for our criminal justice system to be fairer so that black people can get the same treatment as their ‘privileged’ white counterparts. There is still a long way to go.

Paul Hensby