Part of 4. Questions to the Leader of the House and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 4:26 pm on 11 December 2018.
The Cabinet Secretary will be covering this, but I will just say, briefly, that I do not agree that we should have a women's prison in Wales, because having men's prisons in Wales has not stopped Welsh men being sent all over the UK. What we want is for women to be deflected from the criminal justice system, except in the most extreme cases of violence. So, we do not need a bigger prison that will allow us to house more women in secure accommodation. What we need is the right provision in Wales, so where somebody does need to be in secure accommodation, they are in a women's centre, where their children can also be. So, I agree with the sentiment behind what you're saying, that people should be locally housed and disrupted as little as possible, but I'm actually vehemently opposed to the building of a prison, which I think would only lead to more women being imprisoned rather than deflected from the system. But the Cabinet Secretary and I have had many robust discussions on this point, and I'm sure he'll cover it off in his statement this afternoon. [Interruption.] Spirited discussions, indeed.