Prison job advert banned for racial stereotyping

A prison job advert showing a black inmate and a white officer has been banned due to racial stereotyping.

The Ministry of Justice's (MoJ) paid-for Facebook ad showed "an imbalanced power dynamic", the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled.

This reinforced a negative stereotype based on the association between black men and criminal activity, it found.

The MoJ has said that it will be appealing the ASA's ruling.

It had argued the campaign showed photos of real officers and prisoners, and the type of engagement they have.

But the ASA found the advert was "likely to cause serious offence on the grounds of race, by reinforcing negative stereotypes about black men".

It ruled that the advert must not appear again in this form and told the MoJ to ensure it avoided causing serious offence on the grounds of race.

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The advert, aimed at recruiting prison officers and other roles, had appeared on Facebook in May, June and August 2022.

The inmate is shown wearing an afro pick comb in his hair and the image was taken within a working prison.

The ASA said this was "a tool we understood was uniquely associated with black culture".

The advert's caption referred to prison officers as "problem solvers" and "life changers".

"We considered it drew a link between the officer depicted and those attributes," the ASA report said.

"On the other hand, the black prisoner was depicted as a criminal, without those positive attributes," it said.

'Negative casting'

The ASA concluded that the advert did not suggest that all black men were criminals, or were more likely to be so than any other ethnic group.

But it said it considered the advert's focus on the positive qualities of the white prison officer and negative casting of the black prisoner was likely to be seen as perpetuating a negative racial stereotype.

The MoJ had told the watchdog that in its view there was value in showing officers engaging constructively with colleagues and prisoners of varying ethnicities since that was "a crucial part of the role".

Recent figures also showed that the number of public sector prison staff from ethnic minority backgrounds accounted for 9.2%, or 2,823 staff in 2022, up from 1,676 in 2017.

In response to the ruling, a spokesperson for the department said: "We will be appealing this ruling.

"This was one of a wide range of different images used in an advertising campaign featuring real situations in prison - which is an essential part of attracting the right candidates."

Another source within the MoJ described the ruling as "ludicrous" and said it was counter-productive to the "shared goal to improve diversity in the prison service".