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Deadly silence: Black deaths in custody

01 September 1991

Deadly silence: Black deaths in custody, Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS, pp75, £4. This disturbing publication from the Institute of Race Relations investigates nearly forty cases of black deaths in custody. The pamphlet is divided into three sections on "Death and the police", "Death in prison" and "Death in hospital custody". The policing section looks in some detail at deaths that occur while on patrol and raids on the home; deaths on arrest and while at the police station. The Prison section covers: misdiagnosis; inadequate treatment; aggravated suicides and deaths following violent treatment. Chapter 4 is a roll call of 75 black deaths that have occurred in custody since 1969. The overwhelming evidence presented in this book demonstrates that black people suffer unequal, and sometimes fatal, treatment at every stage of the Criminal Justice system. In the final chapter 14 recommendations are made to redress this imbalance by protecting the rights of black people in custody and, in the case of a death, ensuring that custodians are held to account.