Proposals for future inquiry
10. We have taken no formal evidence on the subject
of young offenders—other than the submission from HM Prison
Service which is appended to this Report—and we are in no
position to make recommendations at this stage. Although our visit
served as a useful introduction to some of the issues surrounding
young offenders, we are conscious of the fact that this is a complex
subject area, and one which would require a great deal more examination
on our part before we could produce a substantive report. However,
as the end of the Parliament approaches, we are keen to identify
some of the issues which have arisen from the visit for the benefit
of our successor Committee in the next Parliament and for other
Members of the House and Members of the National Assembly for
Wales who might have a particular interest in these matters. In
the following paragraphs, we set out some of the questions which
might be considered in relation to young offenders from Wales
who are held in prison establishments outside Wales, as well as
some more general issues relating to young offenders. Some of
these more general issues are matters for the Prison Service and
the Home Office but since April 2000, there has been a separate
area management structure for the five prisons in Wales,[13]
which provides an opportunity for an inquiry into the Prison Service
in Wales.
11. The first question raised in relation to young
offenders from Wales is whether it is desirable that so many of
them are held in England. We were assured by prison staff that
bullying of Welsh inmates was not a problem per se—though
bullying in general is a problem throughout the prison system—but
that there was an element of "tribalism" which saw tensions
between groups from different parts of the country: London, Birmingham,
Wales, Bristol, etc. The inmates from Wales who we spoke to invariably
thought that there should be provision for them to serve their
sentences in Wales rather than in England, the principal reason
being that it would be easier for their family and friends to
visit them. It may be that a YOI in Wales, depending on its location,
could lead to some inmates being more isolated from their families
than they are at present.
12. Evidence from the Prison Service suggests that
young offenders from Wales aged 18-20 are held on average 50 miles
from their home—four miles closer than their English counterparts—and
that juvenile offenders are held on average 68 miles from home,
whereas for those from England the average is 55 miles.[14]
It is worth noting that the people we spoke to were almost exclusively
from South Wales and that a proper examination of this question
would have to include an examination of people from other parts
of Wales. A broader inquiry might consider the overall configuration
of establishments in Wales, how the distribution of prison places
relates to the distribution of offenders and what would be the
impact on sentencing, if any, of the creation of more prison places
in Wales.
13. Another important question is whether or not
the Children's Commissioner for Wales should have responsibility
for Welsh juvenile prisoners, either in Wales or in England or
both. At present, the Bill has not completed its passage through
Parliament and the Commissioner's exact powers are still uncertain.
It appears that the Commissioner will have a general power to
consider and make representations to the Assembly about any matter
affecting the rights or welfare of children in Wales, but that
this power will not extend to young offenders held in England.[15]
This has been the subject of much debate recently, not least of
all during the standing committee stage of the Bill in the House
of Commons.[16]
14. More generally, there were some issues which
have wider application and might usefully be included in a future
inquiry. We were concerned by some of the problems relating to
the health care of young offenders, both in prison and in the
community. Access to psychiatric services is clearly a major problem
in some areas, and we were disturbed to learn of one particular
case in which no satisfactory psychiatric care could be found,
even though it was the opinion of prison officers that the person
in question required in-patient medical care rather than imprisonment.
One senior Prison Service official suggested to us that as many
as 70 per cent of prisoners suffered from some kind of mental
health problem at some time during their sentences. Drug and alcohol
abuse are significant factors behind many of the offences which
young people commit and the majority test positive for drugs on
arrival in prison. We were told that there was anecdotal evidence
that the abuse of prescription drugs was a particular problem
in Wales. We were told that there was a shortage of psychologists
in some areas which meant that some young offenders had difficulty
getting access to essential services.
15. The general conditions in Welsh prisons and English
prisons with a high proportion of Welsh inmates might also be
a fruitful area of inquiry. As we have already noted, the new
regional structure adopted by the Prison Service provides an opportunity
to examine the prison service in Wales independently of that in
England. Education and training is obviously one area of particular
importance to young offenders. Other issues of concern are the
quality of prison food and the operation of the policy that prisoners
should not be held more than 50 miles from their home. We were
concerned that essential information, such as a medical history,
which is available to the court at the time of sentencing was
not always passed on immediately to the prison when the prisoner
arrived. Throughcare, probation services and other support in
the community—areas such as housing, education and training,
employment and health care, especially mental health care—are
also areas which we believe are worthy of consideration.
16. We hope that these are issues which our successor
Committee will find time to address during the next Parliament.
8 A Children's Commissioner for Wales,
The Report of the Health and Social Services Committee, National
Assembly for Wales, May 2000. 
