Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 26 September 2017.
Well, we would not do anything that would jeopardise the future of the Swansea metro, that’s true, but there are broader issues here that do have to be addressed. The prisons are crumbling, there’s no question about that. As somebody who was familiar with the system at one time with my job, our prisons are long overdue being replaced—we know that some of them are Victorian. We export prisoners. Women prisoners cannot serve their sentences in Wales. There’s no category A prison in Wales. We still have too many prisoners who are unable to serve their time close to their communities, and that’s important from their perspective in terms of their rehabilitation. What I don’t know is whether she takes the view that there shouldn’t be a prison at all, or whether it should move on to another site. If it is the case that she would want it moved to another site, we’d be open to suggestions as to where that should be.