Shadow Social Justice Minister and North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has challenged the Social Justice Minister over a number of aspects of the Women’s Justice and Youth Justice Blueprints, published jointly by the Welsh Government and UK Ministry of Justice in May 2019 to improve partnerships between devolved and non-devolved services, developed jointly with HM Prison and Probation Service and the Youth Justice Board.
Responding to her Statement, ‘Women’s Justice and Youth Justice Blueprints: Progress report and next steps’, in yesterday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood outlined that “these Blueprints were designed to set out the Welsh Government’s key aspirations and guiding principles for women and young people in, or at risk of, entering the criminal justice system, focused on early intervention and prevention, and recommending a holistic and rehabilitative approach”, and asked:
“To what extent does the Minister therefore recognise that this aligns with the UK Ministry of Justice's 'Prisons Strategy White Paper' to rehabilitate offenders and cut crime; the UK Government’s Female Offender Strategy to divert vulnerable female offenders away from short prison sentences; and the UK Government's Turnaround Scheme to catch and prevent youth offending earlier than ever to help stop these children and young people from moving on to further, more serious offending?”
He added:
“The commissioning partnership established between Police and Crime Commissioners, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service in Wales and Welsh Government enabled last month’s ‘Evaluability Assessment for the Wales Women’s Justice and Youth Justice Blueprints’.
“What action plan do you therefore have, or propose, to deliver on its ‘Specific recommendations for evaluating the Youth Justice Blueprint’, focused on working with the Youth Justice Board and Ministry of Justice to undertake a systematic baselining exercise and establish the mechanism needed to enable trends in data to be monitored over time?
“This is particularly pertinent, where recommendations for evaluating prevention include using Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services referral to treatment time data to show service supply vs. demand, where I continue to receive regular casework regarding neurodiverse children refused assessment or misdiagnosed.
“And, what further consideration have you given to the recommendations in the 2010 Assembly’s Communities and Culture Committee report, ‘Youth Justice: The experience of Welsh children in the Secure Estate’, when I was a Committee Member, including: “that the Welsh Government engage with the UK Government towards enabling the development of new 3 secure estate placements in Wales, using the Hillside secure unit in Neath as a model, and including the development of provision in an appropriate location in North Wales?”
“What action plan do you have, or propose, to deliver on the Evaluability Assessment’s ‘Specific recommendations for evaluating the Women’s Justice Blueprint’, which call, for example, for an expansion of the women’s offending evidence base.”
He also asked the Minister how the pilot Women’s Residential Centres announced by the UK Government as an alternative to imprisonment, one of which, with Welsh Government involvement, was to be located near Swansea in South Wales, would have helped vulnerable women offenders in North, Mid and West Wales to access the services they need closer to home.
Plans for this Centre were turned down by Swansea Council. Mr Isherwood therefore asked the Minister, “what is the current state of play, where Women Prisoners from England can now be released from Welsh Prisons for Rehabilitation in Centres in England, but Women Prisoners in Wales cannot be released to equivalent centres in Wales?”.
He also noted that during their recent visit to HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire, where 148 of the 340 prisoners are from Wales, Members of the Senedd’s Equality and Social Justice Committee were told that when released from the prison “nine out of ten Welsh inmates go on to reoffend, compared to one-in-ten of those from England”, and asked “How do you account for this, where the UK Government has responsibility for criminal justice functions, including prisons, but the Welsh Government is responsible for housing, health, social care and education when these women return to Wales?”