One of the first campaigns the local party blogspot started, for the best of motives, was for a women's prison in South Wales. It later back-pedalled on that after advice from women's groups.
Now it appears that, in spite of the findings that custodial sentences in this respect are counter-productive. women from Wales are being sent to prison in England for non-violent offences. This cannot be right.
There are, however, alternatives to prison for women. Women’s centres "are ‘one-stop-shops’ for women involved in or at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system. They work with women as individuals to help them lead happy, safe and successful lives" (from the Howard League's report on their fate - it seems that the concept has suffered from the government's ideological drive to privatise everything).
This is another aspect of criminal justice that Wales could surely do better than England. The Conservatives should swallow their pride and admit this, devolving policing, prisons and probation to the Welsh government.
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