Is it as bad as the US? Black americans make up half the US prison population;
Based on the numbers I find the the ratio for blacks in the US is 40-45% prison to population vs 12% general population.
In the UK the numbers seem to be about 12-15% prison population vs 2.5% general population.
If you look at Muslims instead of blacks then you'll find similarly lopsided ratios in many European countries. According to some sources as many a 70% of prisoners in France are Muslim (read North African or Turkish in most cases) compared to 10-12% of the general population.
Based on the numbers I find the the ratio for blacks in the US is 40-45% prison to population vs 12% general population. In the UK the numbers seem to be about 12-15% prison population vs 2.5% general population.
If you look at Muslims instead of blacks then you'll find similarly lopsided ratios in many European countries. According to some sources as many a 70% of prisoners in France are Muslim (read North African or Turkish in most cases) compared to 10-12% of the general population.
So to answer your question in one word "Yes".