Go to Jail ...

Go to Jail.....

At the beginning of November, the Board of Cyngor Gwynedd decided to support the inclusion of the Ferodo site as a possible location for a new Jail here in North Wales.
Reading the Council report which carried the recommendation, there appeared very little in the way of either statistical evidence nor an in-depth evaluation of the pros and cons of such a development.
What in the report is in favour of this new jail? Briefly the points are as follows:-
Development of Caernarfon as a legal and justice centre – substantial economic benefits.
The presence of the University and Ysbyty Gwynedd. The use of nearby resources.
The Welsh language. An opportunity to develop a bi-lingual prison administration and support through the medium of Welsh to the area’s prisoners.
Economic situation and local employment.
Access and public transport
The site is currently brown field land and building a prison would lead to the site’s regeneration.
If one was evaluating this report in the form of a Business Plan or proposal, the interested parties would be homing in on the USP’s (Unique Selling Points).
With the possible exception of one point, all the rest are not unique but could equally be applied to various towns in North Wales. Close to a university, hospital, public transport etc.
The possible exception is point 3 – the Welsh language. Is it likely that the mandarins in the Home Office, Whitehall, (who run the prison service) will be bowled over by this argument? I suspect that a bi-lingual prison service in Caernarfon will not be a high scorer in the list of their priorities for a new prison.
How many prisoners will there be? The prison is needed for 400 – 500 prisoners. According to Gwynedd’s report there were in July 2008 approximately 800 adults in prison from North Wales. Of these 120 came from Gwynedd (about 95 men, 25 women). It doesn’t take much maths to work out that there would be a lot of empty places in the prison if we depended solely on local law breakers.
Here’s the nub of the issue. With possibly as many as 350 – 400 ‘spare beds’ in the prison, the bed fillers could be from well outside the locality. My enquiries revealed that there is a tendency for some families to move into the area of a prison if the ‘breadwinner’ is serving a prison sentence. It’s not uncommon for these families to rely heavily on Social Services and other local and national government bodies.
Unfortunately, due to the number of offenders currently in prison in Great Britain, one aspect of prison – re-education and preparation for life outside prison has to an extent received the back burner treatment. Some would argue that on re-entering society some ex-convicts have been ‘re-educated’ so that they can now practice their unlawful trades to much better effect.
So what does the Home Office say about rates of re-offending? From their website the 2000 – 2005 frequency rate of re-offending fell from 189.9 to 167.9 re-offences per 100 offenders. Not a statistic to bring gladness to the hearts of the law-abiding citizens.
In what was supposed to be a balanced report from Cyngor Gwynedd, none of the above points were mentioned. Is it a case of ‘ Be careful in case of what you wish for comes true?’
Mynd i’r Carchar
Ar ddechrau Tachwedd, cymerodd Bwrdd Cyngor Gwynedd y penderfyniad i gefnogi cynnwys safle Ferodo, Caernarfon fel lleoliad posib ar gyfer carchar yng Ngogledd Cymru. Yn yr adroddiad nid oedd llawer o ystadegau na werthusiad o’r datblygiad arfaethedig yma.
Mae’r adroddiad ar we’r Cyngor, ond yn fras, o blaid y prosiect oedd:-
Datblygiad Caernarfon fel canolfan cyfreithiol - lles i’r economi
Lleoliad parod y Brifysgol a’r Ysbyty - adnoddau
Yr Iaith Gymraeg. Cyfle i ddatblygu gweinyddiaeth ddwyieithog, cefnogaeth i garcharorion trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg.
Sefyllfa economaidd a chyflogaeth leol.
Mynediad i drafnidiaeth gyhoeddus.
Mae’r safle’n bresennol yn ‘brown field’ bydd adeiladu carchar yn adfywio’r safle.
Os ydym ni'n edrych ar yr adroddiad yma fel Cynllun Busnes, ble mae’r USP’s? (Unique Selling Points)
Eithrio efallai un pwynt, nid yw’r gweddill yn unigryw, maent yn berthnasol i nifer o drefi yng Ngoledd Cymru. Fel agos at Ysbyty, prifysgol, trafnidiaeth etc.
Yr eithriad, yr Iaith Gymraeg, ond faint o sylw bydd Whitehall yn rhoi i bolisi dwyieithog i garchar yng Ngogledd Cymru?
Faint o garcharorion fydd ‘na? Mae angen garchar ar gyfer 400 - 500. Yn adroddiad Gwynedd adroddwyd bod tua 800 yn y carchar o Ogledd Cymru- Gorffennaf 2008., 120 ohonynt o Wynedd. Mae’n amlwg bydd ‘na nifer o lefydd gwag yng ngharchar Ferodo os ddibynnir ar ddrwgweithredwyr lleol.
Dyma wraidd y broblem. Gyda chymaint â 350 - 400 llefydd gwag yn y carchar, mae’r llefydd gwag yma’n cael eu llenwi gan bobl o du allan i’r ardal. Mae ‘na thueddiad i rai teuluoedd, pan mae ‘gwr y ty’ yn y carchar, symud i ardal y carchar. Yn aml iawn mae angen gofal dwys i’r teuluoedd yma gan Wasanaethau Cymdeithasol ac asiantaethau eraill.
Yn anffodus, gan fod carchardai ym Mhrydain mor llawn, mae addysg a pharatoi’r carcharorion ar gyfer bywyd tu allan ddim yn cael blaenoriaeth deilwng. Mae rhai yn dadlau bod ‘ail addysg’ yn y carchar yn neud nhw’n ddrwgweithredwyr gwaeth ar ôl dod allan.
Beth am ystadegau’r Swyddfa Gartref am ail-droseddu? O’r wefan mae amlder ail droseddu yn 167.9 ail-droseddu ar gyfer bob 100 o droseddwyr. Dim yn statistic sydd am lonni calonnau'r rhai sy’n byw yn yr ardal. Nid oedd ‘run o’r pwyntiau uchod wedi eu crybwyll yn adroddiad Cyngor Gwynedd. Ydi carchar yn Ferodo yn:- Byddwch yn ofalus am be ‘rydych yn gobeithio rhag ofn iddo droi’n wir.?