6. Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Criminal Justice

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:44 pm on 7 March 2018.

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Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 4:44, 7 March 2018

I'm very pleased to take part in this debate, initiated by my colleague Jenny Rathbone. I would reiterate her comments and the comments made by the majority of people who have spoken here today that we do lock up far too many people and that we should be having a radical change in our approach to locking up people. I think, actually, we've heard far too often from different justice Ministers from Westminster saying, 'Yes, we're going to stop locking up people, we're going to go and work in the community', but it never happens. I certainly do support the devolution of the criminal justice system to give us an opportunity to try to have a more effective system, because it's clear, whatever David Rowlands says, that the system that he is describing does not work. What we need to do is to make policy based on evidence.