{"id":27169,"date":"2021-12-28T06:43:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T06:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/28\/uk-legislation-could-strain-weakened-welsh-prisons\/"},"modified":"2021-12-28T06:43:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T06:43:00","slug":"uk-legislation-could-strain-weakened-welsh-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/28\/uk-legislation-could-strain-weakened-welsh-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"UK legislation could strain ‘weakened’ Welsh prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ad_1]<\/p>\n

\n When the House of Lords returns from the Christmas recess in January, voting on the UK Policing Bill will restart.\n<\/p>\n

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\n Perhaps less discussed are\u00a0the changes to criminal sentencing and prison release that the Bill will introduce; changes which many fear will further strain Britain’s prisons, and deepen\u00a0racial inequality.\n<\/p>\n

\n With Wales holding the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe, the Welsh criminal justice system could feel the strain more than most.\n<\/p>\n

\n Let’s look first at the proposed changes:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Sentencing<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n Currently, judges can exercise their own discretion when passing a sentence.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n In some cases, a judge might choose to give an offender a suspended sentence or a community order. These orders will require the person\u00a0to undertake mandatory rehabilitation activities, and will often involve electronic tagging, an imposed curfew and a ban on entering certain parts of the community.\n<\/p>\n

\n If the Policing Bill passes into law, judges will no longer have this option for certain offences.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \"TheLast week Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that further amendments would be made to the Policing Bill, changing how hate crimes are recorded in order to “protect free speech”. (Picture source: PA Wire)<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n Instead, prison sentences will be compulsory except in exceptional circumstances, and for some repeat offences, mandatory minimum prison terms will apply.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Where a person is convicted for a third class A drug trafficking offence, for example, the judge will be required to impose a prison sentence of at least seven years. Drug trafficking offences include arranging for the importation of class A drugs, but can include assisting in a trafficking operation. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n Can the Welsh independence cause survive the Policing Bill?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n A Killing In Tiger Bay: Daughter tells of family’s trauma<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Similar requirements will be made in the case of repeat convictions for carrying a knife\u00a0in a public place or educational setting.\n<\/p>\n

\n According to the Office for National Statistics, 19 percent of offenders convicted for knife possession in the year ending March 2021 were aged between 10 and 17 years old.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Taking this into account, the Alliance for Youth Justice has called for any measures that would increase youth imprisonment to be removed from the Policing Bill.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere is no evidence that the threat of harsher custodial sentences deters children from offending\u2026 but there is abundant evidence that imprisonment is extremely harmful to children and disrupts their healthy long-term development,\u201d the charity said earlier this year.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs)<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n Intended to tackle knife crime, these orders could be placed not only on individuals considered to have been carrying a weapon while committing a criminal offence, but also on anyone accompanying that person\u00a0\u2013 whether they knew the\u00a0other person was armed or not.\n<\/p>\n

\n Organisations\u00a0including the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) – a coalition of 170 justice charities –\u00a0as well as\u00a0legal aid charity Rights of Women, have warned that the policy could put vulnerable women in abusive relationships at risk.\n<\/p>\n

\n The disproportionate rate at which BAME people are arrested, they said<\/a>, would also make the policy much more likely to affect non-white people.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Stop and search: ‘I’ll just shut my mouth and let it happen’<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Under an SVRO, a person\u00a0could\u00a0be detained and searched by a police officer at any time while out in a public place. Officers would be able to use \u201creasonable force\u201d to carry out these searches, and there would be no limit to the number of searches carried out on the same person per day.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"TheSVROs are intended to tackle knife crime, but charities warn that they could put vulnerable women and BAME people at risk (Picture source: PA Wire)<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n Breaking the order –\u00a0for instance, by refusing to submit to a search\u00a0– could result in a year\u2019s imprisonment, a fine, or both.\n<\/p>\n

\n SVROs will\u00a0“disrupt a person\u2019s rehabilitative journey by encouraging officers to continuously stop and search an individual, even after they have made a commitment to change their lives,” the CJA added.\n<\/p>\n

\n “We are concerned that SVROs will further damage trust and confidence in policing and undermine legitimacy… Individuals and communities will see and feel the general increase in stop and search of young black men, adding to their mistrust in policing.”\n<\/p>\n

\n What else?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n Alongside the measures outlined above, the Policing Bill would double the maximum punishment for assaulting an emergency worker – including verbal assault –\u00a0from one to two years, and would make applications for early release from prison more difficult both to submit and to have granted.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Home Secretary would also gain new powers to prevent any prisoner\u2019s automatic early release if that prisoner is perceived to have become \u201cradicalised\u201d in prison – a perception that can be influenced by ethnicity, culture and religion.\n<\/p>\n

\n What does Westminster say?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n While the UK government argues that their approach will increase \u201cconfidence in the criminal justice system for the public, victims, and the judiciary, through improved public protection\u201d, many say that the Bill risks exacerbating existing problems in the justice system, and increasing, rather than decreasing, crime.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Indeed, the government states in one of its own documents that the Bill could mean \u201cfamily breakdown is more likely, affecting prisoner mental health and subsequent reoffending risk.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The review goes on: \u201cPrison Services and the Youth Custody Service will face increased population and longer times spent in custody for some offenders, which may compound prison instability, self-harm, violence and overcrowding.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \"TheBoris Johnson speaks at Prime Minister’s Questions, December 2021 (Picture source: PA Wire)<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n In an Equalities Impact Assessment, the government acknowledges that some of its policies may put BAME people \u201cat a particular disadvantage\u201d. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n These potential costs, it says, are balanced by expected benefits to the general public and victims of crime \u201cin that they feel protected for longer.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n In all, the Home Office estimates that its intended policies will result in a \u201csteady\u201d increase to the England and Wales prison population of around 700 prisoners by 2028.\n<\/p>\n

\n
Wales behind bars<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n This population increase may be a particular cause for concern in Wales.\n<\/p>\n

\n Last year, leading Welsh criminologist Dr Robert Jones used data obtained from the Ministry of Justice to provide a snapshot of our criminal justice system in numbers. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Dr Jones noted that Wales had a higher imprisonment rate (the number of prisoners per 100,000 people in the population) than England and thus, the highest in Western Europe.\n<\/p>\n

\n According to Jones, Wales and England combined have held the highest imprisonment rates in Western Europe since 1999.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \"TheHMP Berwyn, the north Wales “super prison”<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n There are currently five prisons in Wales.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n HMP Cardiff, Swansea, Usk, Usk Prescoed and the relatively new HMP Berwyn, north Wales\u2019s so-called \u201csuper prison\u201d, are all government-run, while Bridgend\u2019s Parc Prison is operated by private security firm G4S.\n<\/p>\n

\n At the time of writing, all Welsh prisons except Berwyn were operating with a population exceeding their Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA).\n<\/p>\n

\n CNA, also known as \u201cuncrowded capacity\u201d represents the number of prisoners a facility can hold before it\u2019s considered to be overcrowded.\n<\/p>\n

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