Wales: Becoming a Penal Colony?
From Planet 229
by Bridget Keehan
Bridget Keehan draws on her experience of working with prisoners and visiting an imprisoned relative to give an insight into the appalling conditions in Welsh jails. She responds to anxieties about another proposed ‘super-prison’ for Wales, and argues that this raises more fundamental questions about devolution and the criminal justice system, and the need to create a radically progressive approach to justice itself.
More than 85,000 prisoners are behind bars in the UK, which incarcerates more people than any other European state. The buildings in which they are held, for the purpose of punishment, public protection and, less convincingly, rehabilitation are, for the most part, barely fit for purpose. They are overcrowded, poorly resourced and widely regarded as being in a state of crisis.
Swansea Prison, as seen from the Grape & Olive restaurant at the top of the Meridian Tower © Clint Budd (CC by 2.0) http://bit.ly/1rRyEZO
