Motion NDM6949 Rhun ap Iorwerth

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes the report by the Wales Governance Centre, Sentencing and Immediate Custody in Wales: A Factfile.

2. Expresses concern at the report’s finding that Wales has the highest incarceration rate in western Europe, and that women, BAME people and disadvantaged communities are disproportionately impacted by harsher sentencing in Wales.

3. Notes previous research by the Wales Governance Centre which has revealed widespread safety and wellbeing issues in Wales’s prisons, including increasing rates of substance misuse, self-harm, violence and suicide.

4. Notes that a number of young offenders from Wales serve prison sentences in England, and that incarceration has a significant negative impact on young people’s future life chances.

5. Calls for:

a) the full devolution of criminal justice to Wales;

b) the ruling out of the construction of further ‘super prisons’ on any site in Wales and calls on Welsh Government to communicate this opposition to the Ministry of Justice;

c) the full re-unification of the probation service and an end to partial privatisation;

d) a focus on community-based approaches for non-violent crimes and an end to the overuse of shorter prison sentences;

e) an end to custodial sentences for young people and women other than in exceptional circumstances;

f) the right to vote for prisoners in Welsh elections.