Wales ‘being turned into a penal colony’ warns prison charity head

Quick question: where the hell is Plaid Cymru when it comes to real on the ground issues that make people get out and vote? Issues like this. That isn't a rhetorical question by the way.

Well done Frances Cook. She's based away from Wales but has enough savvy to pick up on an obvious trend, which our dozy politicians have either ignored, been blissfully unaware, or have connived in creating. If this is the kind of employment and "business activity" that our Welsh Government thinks is good for our country then they must be replaced a.s.a.p. Read extensive coverage of this issue and related matters such as relocation of "difficult cases" into Wales from English metropolitan regions on jacothenorth's blog. He's generated a lot of light on these matters over recent years which our MSM generally ignore or misreport.

The new prison at Port Talbot will replace the overcrowded facilities in Cardiff and Swansea which together house nearly 1300 inmates. It will provide much needed local jobs both in construction and staffing and built on publicly owned land. I understand the locals concerns but it will be a catagory C prison so no great risk. New prisons are being also being built at Full Sutton in Yorkshire, Hindley in Wigan and Rochester in Kent. The construction of HMP Berwyn has been well supported by the local authority in Wrexham. This is the old NIMBY routine trotted out whenever something new is built.

There was certainly a need for a prison in North Wales for the needs of North Wales, Berwyn is a super prison, which is not what is needed. More than anything we need smaller local prisons so that family ties can be kept - which is so important for rehabilitation. We are also in dire need of women's prisons in Wales. Being used as a dumping ground is not the answer to our problems. The sooner Wales takes control of the administration of justice the better.

Yeah right - I'll believe Mike Flynn instead of the two prison experts...

It was your accusation of Nimbyism and the assertion of loadsa jobs that I disputed. As for 'jobs in construction' we all know that construction jobs are a mirage: many building jobs are temporary and contractual and end when the building is done, or people come in from elsewhere and build things then drive away (as happens here in Bangor), or existing builders are used who may sometimes temporarily contract some new people. It's not a job creator in the way that starting a company or opening a shop is. As for the prison officer and admin and cleaning jobs etc they may or may not mop up lost jobs in the prisons that have been 'replaced'.

This land was on a categorised flood plane where you cant build on they got that hurdle moved, what makes you think the prison category wont be changed once its built. Come on people they are taking the micky for god sake.

Don't forget there's HMP Parc, Bridgend as well.

Who says prison works- ISIS, drug barons, criminal gangs/fraudsters/boiler room scammers short of recruits with the necessary skills? A fair share based on Wales’ population size of Britain’s prison population of ~85000 would be ~4000. Beyond that and expect an old stereotype to re-emerge - “Taffy was a beggar man, Taffy was a thief” regardless of where the prisoners actually come from. Question any project in Wales and expect to be accused of being anti Welsh jobs and anti Welsh economic development. Of course, Australia no longer accepts the UK’s convicts and controls its own immigration. Gough Whitlam’s struggle to move Australia on from being a British “branch office” in the antipodes is particularly relevant to the struggle of Wales and a reminder that constitutional independence may not end a culture of dependency. Australia has moved on from a “contributionalist” mode of thinking (for “contributionism”, see Ifan Morgan Jones, Opinion 26.9.17) For example, it is doubtful whether Premiers John Turnbull or Barry born Julia Gillard would be so ready to acquiesce to British nuclear testing on Australian soil as was Sir Robert “British to his boot-straps” Menzies, Australian Prime Minister 1939-41, 1949-66 was in the 1950 and 60s.

The Howard League for Penal Reform do not want to accept there are very bad people out there. In my opinion they live on another planet just believing that career criminals are ordinary folk who strayed off the straight and narrow. Magistrates and Judges are fully aware of the capacity of the system. Prison is a last resort in most cases. A prison at Baglan will not kill people like the old chemical works. Take a look at this http://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/52/4/217.full.pdf

In an ideal world there would be no bad people or the need for punishment and incaceration.

I don't this board is a place where jokes go down well! When it comes to criminal activity BBC Wales, my old employers from decades ago ,are worthy of the stocks. Abuse of public funds springs to mind. Here is an email from Wrexham MP Ian Lucas in response to my recent complaints ..... Dear Mike "I have had similar correspondences from constituents who are extremely angry at the way in which BBC Wales is treating fans of Wrexham FC. I have written to BBC Wales on a couple of occasions in the last month regarding this very issue. I also wrote the following on Facebook regarding my thoughts on the matter. I have received a response from the BBC which is also below. Any further comments or thoughts you may have would be greatly appreciated. " Yours sincerely Ian Lucas Labour https://twitter.comIanCLucas Wrexham Office: 01978 355743 https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote Take a look at this back page, especially if you work for BBC Radio Wales. It is from today’s Daily Post, North Wales’ only regional newspaper. It has two major sports stories. One relates to Manchester United, the other to Liverpool. Inside, except for a page devoted to Wrexham AFC, there are around half a dozen pages relating to sport which focus mainly on Liverpool, Manchester United and Everton. There is a reason for this. The Daily Post knows that North Wales’ sports fans are mainly interested in football and they mainly support Manchester United, Everton and Liverpool. This is a source of annoyance to Wrexham supporters but it is a fact. It does not matter how often BBC Wales extol the virtues of Wales’ only Premier League team, Swansea City, or Championship team, Cardiff, North Wales football fans will not stop supporting teams from North West England. Wrexham is North Wales’ premier football team. They are, unfortunately, outside the Football League but I was MP when Wrexham were above both Swansea and Cardiff in the Football League. I hope to be MP when they are above them again. The BBC think it is OK to give Wrexham fans a less good service than Cardiff and Swansea fans. It isn’t. The reason they think this is because they don’t understand North Wales. If the BBC wants to support football in North Wales, it should be supporting Wrexham AFC, not reducing the service it provides. And the fact is that most football supporters in North Wales are more interested in Liverpool, Everton and Manchester United than teams from South Wales. They would like their own channel reflecting the reality of the position in North Wales – in football and more broadly too. A single BBC Radio Wales will never be able to cover North Wales properly. The BBC is determined to have one radio station in Wales whereas what we need is one dedicated to North Wales. This football example is just one instance of the dreadful coverage we have had to put up with for years. I wrote to the BBC on behalf of North Wales Labour MPs and AMs recently saying so (letter below) and await a reply. For goodness sake, if Shropshire can have its own BBC radio station, why can’t North Wales? This is a letter I wrote to the BBC on the broad issue last month. Dear Rhodri (Talfan Davies), I refer to this week's breakfast and the issues I raised, supported by colleagues, concerning coverage of North Wales. I know you responded at breakfast but we felt we wanted to emphasise the points and ask for your response. I have spoken to MPs from North Wales who did not attend the breakfast and to a number of Labour AMs. As you know, I have raised this topic many times. I have spoken to both Labour MPs and AMs from North Wales and they share my disappointment with BBC Cymru/Wales services. In particular: 1. BBC coverage does not begin to reflect the diversity of North Wales. BBC Cymru/Wales coverage is dominated by south Wales issues. The result is that fewer and fewer North Wales viewers look to the BBC Cymru/Wales coverage for news on their area. 2. On politics, Sunday coverage rarely focusses on North AMs and MPs and the clear preference is for individuals in the studio in Cardiff Bay to be chatting about Wales issues, excluding North Wales politicians. 3. We do not know who covers political issues for the BBC in North Wales. I have been Chair of the APPG for North Wales/Mersey/Dee for the last two years and cannot recall discussing it with any BBC journalist. Cross-border issues were a major issue in the General Election campaign but were not, as far as we are aware, featured by the BBC. 4. The artistic talent of North Wales is not given a fair share of BBC resources in Wales - there is lower infrastructure investment and worse access to career opportunities, which are heavily focussed on Cardiff. 5. Online regional coverage is no substitute for decent provision. Our experience is that coverage is very slow to update and change. 6. In order to assess the performance of BBC Cymru/Wales, it would be useful to have statistics on a sub-regional basis across Wales on the following in order to track changes over the year - number of employees, ethnicity, socio economic, gender, geographical spread, investment figures over the past ten years in different parts of Wales. We have made numerous suggestions for change in the past, including opt outs, in an effort to find a fair way to address our concerns, but have found BBC Cymru/Wales' response very disappointing. After all, our constituents are license payers too. Subsequent to this I received the following reply. Dear Ian Thanks for the letter. As you note, we’ve made a number of changes to our sports output across Radio Wales. We are attempting to provide a more consistent offering to sports fans across Wales, and we’re looking to digital/online delivery for some commentaries, depending on rights availability. Your constituent is right to say we’ve had some experimentation to start the season and we are adapting based on audience feedback. So just to be clear, all future Wrexham games will be carried online with the commentary provided by the BBC Radio Wales team. That’s both home and away. Decisions about which Wrexham commentaries sit on FM and DAB will then vary from week to week depending on clashing fixtures and the wider sporting content - for example Wrexham was carried on FM and DAB two weekends ago. In addition, of course, news about the club continues across our daily output and sport bulletins, the team is included in our new Friday Night Social programme, and there is coverage online via the BBC Sport Wales website. With regard to podcasting, we have also launched a new podcast this season which covers all of our main football teams, including Wrexham. Presented by Elis James, the podcast is available via the BBC Radio Wales website and the usual podcast platforms. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05cmk38https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fprogrammes%2Fp05cmk38&data=02%7C01%7Cian.lucas.mp%40parliament.uk%7C73140038e7fb4e847afa08d501ac24f3%7C1ce6dd9eb3374088be5e8dbbec04b34a%7C0%7C0%7C636416761217676202&sdata=EpVY4uzOn8oGRLJm9EHvrnUMaxcabEjVH7OFEB77q2s%3D&reserved=0 I hope this is useful. Best wishes Rhodri

Far from it but there is a nation called Wales that is ignored by a lot of inward looking people who fail to see the true picture and have a romantic notion of what the country should be. Sometimes I get the impression there is a desire to recreate an 'Amish' type enclave similar to the Patagonian migrants. There were thousands lining up,for those jobs at HMP Berwyn in Wrexham. My sister has lived in the same house in Ruabon for forty years and tells me everyone wanted that facility to replace the old Firestone Tyre Factory. The truth is that no amount of rhetoric will change my home area. Wrexham and North East Wales will always be aligned to Chester,Merseyside and Manchester. Cardiff is as close as Carlisle!

Yawn. A piece about prisons where Mike Flynn manages to have a go at the Welsh language, Welsh-speakers' rights, post-devoltion media 'bias' and anyone in north Wales who doesn't think Merseyside is the centre of the universe. It's like watching 1980s Top of the Pops, but without the good songs.

Mike Flynn has 'converted dozens of old buildings over the years' (Bit of a digression this . . .). How long does it take to convert an old building? 3 to 6 months - more likely a year. Then there are the planning issues to go into and the architects. If Mike Flynn really had converted 'dozens' of buildings, he would have to be a full time property developer - perhaps he is, what do i know. Yet he states that he also spent [at least] 10 years with the baw biswail a charthion (BBC) as a cyfryngu. Personally, after all i've read from Mike Flynn, until he posts a fairly full, and checkable work history, with links to all the 'dozens' of planning permissions, i will not believe a word he says Sorry about that.

I wish people would stick to the subject matter highlighted by the articlebinstead of spouting irrelevant nonsense

The Justice system must be devolved. It should be illegal to remove anydetained person across the border to another country.