8. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services: Towards a Distinct Approach to the Penal System in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:26 pm on 11 December 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 5:26, 11 December 2018

Thank you for your statement. As you say, we need more action and fewer words. Penal policy has been dominated by the Daily Mail for too many years, not just under the Conservative Government, but under previous Labour Governments as well. So, we know that the current system doesn't work, because, if we send people to prison and they are simply learning new skills as a criminal and then being taken back to prison, we're simply wasting our time. So, rehabilitation has to be the key driver here, and I welcome your intent, but obviously am concerned that we still don't have anything concrete in the way of a women's centre in Wales, particularly in relation to your comments about young people and the increasing pulling into crime that's happening with young people being pulled into the drugs trade through these county lines, and related issues around carrying knives, which is extremely worrying.

Now, you're absolutely right, it seems to me, to talk about the need for trauma-informed work with young people who've had very troubled lives, but I'm just wondering how we are going to deliver these services when youth work has been so hollowed out by years and years of austerity and cuts to local government, and, because they're not statutory services, often they are some of the first to go. So, I would commend, absolutely, the fantastic work that has been done in my constituency by youth workers to protect young people who are in danger of being sucked into the drugs trade and who are the people who young people are prepared to go to. They won't go to the police, because they think they'll then be regarded as somebody who is informing on other people, but youth workers are a neutral body of people who know how to talk to young people and who they can rely on to protect them and to advise them. So, this seems to me one of the major problems, really, that you highlight the importance of trauma-informed youth services, but we have a shrinking number of that public service.