More than half of young people in jail are of BME background

David Lammy says record proportion in England and Wales is similar to that in USMore than half of the inmates held in prisons for young people in England and Wales are from a black and minority ethnic (BME) background, the highest proportion on record, the prisons watchdog has said, prompting warnings that youth jails have hit “American” levels of disproportionality.About 51% of boys in young offender institutions (YOIs) – prisons for boys aged 15 to 17 and young adult men aged