NDM6949 Plaid Cymru debate - Prisons and Criminal Justice

NDM6949 Plaid Cymru debate - Prisons and Criminal Justice

NDM6949 Rhun ap Iorwerth (Ynys Môn)

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes the report by the Wales Governance Centre, Sentencing and Immediate Custody in Wales: A Factfile.

2. Expresses concern at the report’s finding that Wales has the highest incarceration rate in western Europe, and that women, BAME people and disadvantaged communities are disproportionately impacted by harsher sentencing in Wales.

3. Notes previous research by the Wales Governance Centre which has revealed widespread safety and wellbeing issues in Wales’s prisons, including increasing rates of substance misuse, self-harm, violence and suicide.

4. Notes that a number of young offenders from Wales serve prison sentences in England, and that incarceration has a significant negative impact on young people’s future life chances.

5. Calls for:

a) the full devolution of criminal justice to Wales;

b) the ruling out of the construction of further ‘super prisons’ on any site in Wales and calls on Welsh Government to communicate this opposition to the Ministry of Justice;

c) the full re-unification of the probation service and an end to partial privatisation;

d) a focus on community-based approaches for non-violent crimes and an end to the overuse of shorter prison sentences;

e) an end to custodial sentences for young people and women other than in exceptional circumstances;

f) the right to vote for prisoners in Welsh elections.

Wales Governance Centre - Sentencing and Immediate Custody in Wales: A Factfile

Wales Governance Centre - Imprisonment in Wales: A Factfile

House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee: Supplementary Evidence - Dr Robert Jones, Wales Governance Centre, September 2018

 

The following amendments were tabled:

Amendment 1 - Gareth Bennett (South Wales Central)

Delete all and replace with:

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales: 

1. Notes the Wales Governance Centre report on Sentencing and Immediate Custody, Imprisonment in Wales and supplementary evidence to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. 

2. Further notes that, according to the Ministry of Justice, in October 2018, 11 percent of the total prison population in England and Wales were foreign nationals, with the most common foreign nationalities being Polish, Albanian, Irish and Romanian. 

3. Believes that:

a) the prison service should be adequately funded and prison officers adequately paid;

b) all prisoners should be in the custody of officers of the Crown answerable to UK Government Ministers and not private companies;

c) the Welsh Government should work with the UK Government to reverse privatisation of the prison system;

d) foreign criminals should be deported to serve their sentences in their own countries, and such criminals should be banned from re-entering the UK;

e) new prisons should be built as necessary throughout the UK to accommodate the number of persons convicted of imprisonable crimes.

Offender Management Statistics Bulletin, England and Wales

 

[If amendment 1 is agreed, amendments 2 and 3 will be de-selected] 

Amendment 2 - Darren Millar (Clwyd West)

Delete all after point 1 and replace with:

Notes the focus by the Ministry of Justice on rehabilitative services, community sentences and reducing reoffending.

 

[If amendment 2 is agreed, amendment 3 will be de-selected] 

Amendment 3 - Rebecca Evans (Gower)

Delete point 5 and replace with:

Welcomes the work of the Commission on Justice in Wales and looks forward to its recommendations about future responsibilities for policing and justice in Wales.

Calls for

a) the ruling out of the construction of further ‘super prisons’ on any site in Wales and calls on Welsh Government to communicate this opposition to the Ministry of Justice;

b) the full re-unification of the probation service and an end to partial privatisation;

c) a focus on community-based approaches for non-violent crimes and an end to the overuse of shorter prison sentences;

d) an end to custodial sentences for young people and women other than in exceptional circumstances; and

e) the right to vote for prisoners in Welsh elections.

 

Business type: Debate

Reason considered: Senedd Business;

Status: Complete

First published: 09/06/2021

Decision due: 30 Jan 2019 by Plenary - Fifth Senedd

Lead member: Rhun ap Iorwerth MS