Extending the Franchise to Prisoners

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution – in the Senedd at 3:19 pm on 24 November 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 3:19, 24 November 2021

I'm very pleased to hear that, Counsel General, because there is so much wrong with the criminal justice system, in particular the failure to have any impact on the rehabilitation of prisoners, because of the underfunding of the prison service and the completely inadequate way in which we treat prisoners. They are there to be punished, but they are also there to be rehabilitated. So, I think that it's really, really important that prisoners—or, at least, most prisoners—get the vote, in order to ensure that the inadequacy of the public service that we provide through our prisons, which is extremely expensive, is actually being properly aired and discussed and considered by anybody who is an elected Member.