Experiences of young people from Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities in prison

Posted on by Sam Worrall

A picture of the author, Sam Worrall.

Introduction

Over the past two years, FFT has been visiting Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller people in prisons across England and Wales, holding focus group discussions to learn about their experiences of being in the criminal justice system. Across society as a whole, people from Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities are subject to exclusion and discrimination from services, resulting in poor outcomes in health, education, employment and accommodation. When caught up in the criminal justice system, the barriers that come from that exclusion further impact upon a person’s journey through the criminal justice pathway. This piece explores some of the experiences of young people in prison who attended the focus group sessions and how wider societal views of Gypsy and Traveller communities influences their lives.

Criminalising Gypsy and Traveller Cultures

Since the 1960s the nomadic way of life has almost been squeezed out of existence. Previously, travelling families would stop on verges or empty patches of land for seasonal employment, in times of illness or if a baby was born, or meet with others for horse fairs, funerals and weddings. Now legislation is increasingly being designed to force people to settle on the few and far between permanent sites or in bricks and mortar accommodation, create barriers to traditional avenues of employment, and even restrict horse grazing.

Most recently, parts of the PCSC Act sought to criminalise the very act of stopping by the roadside, with severe consequences for those found to be breaching the conditions. After a successful legal challenge, parts of this law have now been amended. It’s little wonder then that the additional clash points these laws provide make living as a Romany or Traveller person incredibly difficult without encountering police and enforcement. Sadly, these encounters often occur where very young children are present.

There is strong code of honour amongst Romany and Traveller people, and this can cause flashpoints when police intervene. The trauma of being ostracized, demonised, feeling as if your way of life is being eradicated and forcing assimilation can lead to resentment of policing and laws. One young man who took part in a focus group session put it like this.

“It’s like our whole way of life is criminalised, taking away our sites, our stopping places, banned from travelling through counties, new laws so we can’t deal scrap or door to door trade, all the things we been doing and working on for years and generations, my dad and my whole family, so how are we expected to make a way in life if it’s all taken away from us?”

Childhood Experiences as a Romany Gypsy or Irish Traveller

When asked about their earliest experiences of the police and law, as young children, it was apparent that messaging from parents and other adults was polar opposite to messages in wider society. Where many settled people may have grown up being told that the police were there to protect and help, and perhaps viewed as a desirable career path, young Romany and Traveller children were told to stay away from the police, run away even, keep quiet, or even actively make police officers feel unwelcome if they came onto the site where people were living.

“We were told not to speak to [the police] and if we did it would lead to trouble. But they used to follow us every time we left site so we were scared of them, and we would always run away, to stay safe.”

“As a child you were taught that the police were the bad people, we were brought up to tell lies to protect ourselves and our families and that the police wanted to take our trailers off us, our homes.”

This messaging to young people comes from adults themselves often having very negative experiences of policing, and young people witnessing police behaviour that clearly demonstrated to them how officers viewed people from Romany and Traveller cultures. Asked in the focus groups about specific situations where police had been involved, respondents included negative and often traumatic experiences with the police and the law, and how these shaped opinions of the law from a very young age. These experiences demonstrate how interactions with police and services from a young age can influence the choices people make.

Every participant had personal stories of harassment, site raids, evictions, and witnessing family members being assaulted or arrested. These experiences compounded what they had been told by adults while growing up and impacted negatively on mental health, creating traumatic memories that have never found resolution or closure.

“What you see happening and what happens to you makes you fear them or makes you angry or both, so you react that way.”

“We moved around a lot, so we had contact with police a lot...the hate felt overwhelming. The police turn up with extra precautions that are just silly, and it was scary when you are a kid. They would turn up in the night to move us on, we were living roadside cos all the sites were shut down…we didn’t sleep much a lot of the time cos we were just waiting for them to come.”

“I saw police restrain and hit family members when I was little.”



Early Experiences of Arrest

Participants spoke of the first time they were arrested or encountered the police, with the majority saying they were around 12 or 13 years of age. It is suggested that the reason for most of these contact points was the participant’s identification as a Gypsy or Traveller, rather than because of the participant having broken the law. Experiences were recounted of encounters of overpolicing on permanent sites where young people or ‘known families’ live, being stopped as soon as they stepped out of the site, being questioned for no reason, to the extent of feeling provoked into a response that would lead to arrest or running away.

“We always got pulled over as soon as we left the site and [the police] always hang around outside waiting…or they will often drive onto sites, drive around and then leave, just feels intimidating.”

“I was arrested first when I was 12, for fighting and my 17-year-old brother was too, and he got a prison sentence for that. We were fighting against someone calling us the P word. We were being racially abused and stood up for myself, but none of this got considered at court.”

“People find out you’re a Traveller and then they want to push you into getting angry. This time the guy was calling me and my family names like P**ey and other things and I just have to react cos I was brought up to fight and to protect my family, so I lashed out.”

Normalisation of prison

Participants were asked if as young people, they experienced other family members serving a prison sentence. Every participant across all focus groups had experience of growing up with at least one family member in prison and talked about it being ‘normal’ or ‘standard’ with multiple relatives from immediate or extended family being in and out of prison almost continuously. This adds to childhood trauma and the perception that for Romany and Traveller people, prison an inevitable part of life.

“As a kid, I just thought [non-Gypsies] and police were just there to take us away. Into care if we were kids, or to put the adults in prison.”

“My mum, dad, uncle, grandad…all been in when I was a kid...at one point my older brother had to step up to be the parent cos they were all in at once.”

Sometimes prison was even romanticised, and although as children they may not have been aware of this, the effect was damaging nonetheless.

“I think I blocked it out a lot. My dad was in and out, he wasn’t really around at all, but it felt normal I guess as other people in my family were in prison and out all the time.”

“I had an older brother inside and I remember thinking how interesting it sounded...like quite exciting... I think I wanted to be cool like him, silly really cos now I been inside I know what it’s like and it’s not cool.”

Messages for the Future

From the conversations held in prisons with young Romany and Traveller people, it appears that many are trying, despite the inequalities and barriers, to change the messaging that they are giving their own children. Younger prisoners were more likely than their older peers to make their children aware of the negative consequences of prison life. They can remember being told by grandparents to live life how they wanted and not compromise and thinking their imprisoned uncle or brother was ‘admirable’. But the message to their own children now is “Don’t do what I do, stay out of trouble”.

However, despite this, there is clearly still unresolved trauma in these young mothers and fathers, fear of the police and the very real perception that the system is stacked against them unfairly, compared to the wider settled community.

“It feels like society doesn’t let us dream big, it seems our lives are controlled, and we can’t achieve like others can.”

“Actually, I think we are all traumatised you know, by the things we saw and what happened to us growing up and the way we get treated every day in society and in the papers. I think we are all traumatised, but we can’t get any help.”

Conclusion

Exposure to lifelong and generational discrimination together with enforced marginalisation were by far the strongest themes that emerged from the engagement sessions with young prisoners. This stigmatisation impacts on self-belief and self-worth and seems to be the starting point for many young Gypsy and Traveller people towards a criminal justice pathway.

A common expression was “everyone sees me as guilty anyway so I may as well be”. There was certainly strong anecdotal experiences of their ethnicity being disclosed by magistrates or judges during trials, as if they must be guilty by default and punished more harshly.

Other factors such as being taken into care as a child and being excluded from full time education can influence young people’s choices and restrict their future prospects, but it still feels like Romany and Traveller communities are being left behind in any drives towards addressing inequalities faced by young people from ethnic minority groups.

Sam Worrall works for the national charity Friends, Families and Travellers. Active since 1994, FFT supports individuals and families with the issues that matter most to them, while working to end racism and discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people and to protect the right to pursue a nomadic way of life. Sam has been with FFT since 2018 and has worked on various projects. Over the last 3 years, she has focused on criminal justice projects funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust and has visited around 50 prisons across England and Wales, holding focus groups with almost 200 people from Romany Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller communities.

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