39. – Encouragement and the opportunity to liaise with similar groups from the community would help prison staff to break down barriers and build bridges of understanding. CASE STUDIES Methodology: Trainees should be invited to join a round-table discussion with members of the training team. For this exercise, it is necessary for the training team to include representatives of minority ethnic groups in order for the deliberations to have maximum benefit for the trainees. Points to be highlighted/suggested areas for discussion: CASE STUDY 1 39. – This is a very difficult situation for prison staff to deal with. The media might be aware of some wrongdoing by staff who are in every other way good at their jobs and who are very supportive colleagues; 39. – They might, on the other hand, wish to expose the wrongdoing of other officers but be frightened to do so because of possible repercussions; 39. – The prison administration might decide that an independent investigation is appropriate in the light of the serious allegations; 39. – The disruption within the prison is likely to be considerable; 39. – The facts should be gathered by questioning both staff and prisoners and by examining any written or other evidence; 39. – If clear evidence of racial discrimination is discovered, the guilty parties must be dealt with according to the rules laid down within the jurisdiction, which might include dismissal; 39. – In reality, proving such allegations is quite difficult, because it is often one person’s word against another; 39. – What is clear from an occurrence such as this is that a policy on the subject of racial discrimination must be established. This policy should be published and there should be training for all staff. The policy should be implemented rigorously at every level. Monitoring procedures, which are easy to use, should be built in. CASE STUDY 2 39. – Any law enforcement agency, to be wholly effective within a community, has to be seen as fair and even-handed across all sections of the community; 39. – Working with members of minority groups in the community, especially young people, may help to build up notions of trust; 39. – Recruitment drives that demonstrate the multicultural aspects of the community might help the image of the service; 39. – Recruitment drives that demonstrate the positive sides of the job, e.g. rehabilitation programmes to educate and retrain prisoners, including members of minority groups, can also help. 139