Devolving Youth Justice to Wales
Posted on Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 4:26pm
one response
I sit on the Communities and Culture Committee at the National Assembly, and we are conducting an inquiry in to the youth justice system in the secure estate. It is a fascinating piece of work, and today Edwina Hart AM announced that Professor Rod Morgan from Bristol University would be conducting an inquiry into the benefits and risks of devolving the youth justice system to Wales, which will report by the end of the year.
In her evidence session to the committee today, the Minister emphasised the divergence of opinion between Wales and Westminster on this matter- eg disagreeing with the fixed penalties system, against the incarceration of young people, and the educational implications on young Welsh people who are in English prisons.
Most of the evidence that we have taken to date calls for the devolution of the youth justice system, and today, we took superb evidence from The Howard League for Penal Reform- Andrew Neilson, who is the Assistant Director. He told us of the necessity to devolve the criminal justice system so that we can deliver on the rights based agenda of the Welsh Assembly Government, and so that young Welsh people are treated fairly. A few quotes from Andrew stuck in my mind. One was in relation to the fact that the UK government is obsessed with locking people up instead of looking at alternative measures. He said ‘ the problem with prisons are that they make us prisoners in our thinking’.
Another interesting point that he made was on the back of the fact that Members present stated their experiences of having visited some of the secure estates in England, and Hillside in Wales as part of the inquiry. Andrew said in response to a comment Mark Isherwood AM made about meeting some young people who actually wanted to be in a secure estate as it gave them structure and boundaries- ‘ it surprises me that it has taken a Welsh child, in an English prison, to talk to AMs about how they actually feel’.
There’s still a long way to go in this inquiry yet, but I can imagine that the same themes will crop up over the need to devolve the youth justice system to Wales in order for Welsh Ministers to be able to prioritise budgets to implement ideas and initiatives which differ from that of Westminster- which usually centres on locking them up, and throwing away the key……
Good post Bethan.
I see such matters being a developing theme, particularly given overlap.
For instance, much of criminal justice, particularly given the progressive agenda within Wales, will fall under the remit of the health service. Drug policy, which is in need of being an NHS priority, not just a criminal justice one, is one such example. It would be rather counterproductive if we have a health system trying to aid a criminal justice system that has vastly different starting points.
With the natural course of devolution fixed on a path of extension, it seems necessary we begin to look at what areas need to be devolved, particularly if they are inherently linked to already devolved areas.