Let's Talk More About A Proposed Welsh "Super" Prison.....And Birmingham

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I spoke recently about a proposed Welsh "Super" prison to be built in Baglan near Port Talbot. I expressed dismay that both the UK and Welsh governments appear to think that building such a monument to the way we live  now would be good for the area. They seemed to think that these prisons (there is more than one proposed super prison to be built in Wales) would provide Wales with a new "skill set" in a "service industry" rather than to use the vacant land (near residential houses, a care home and a school please note) for something more constructive to the community, like say a factory.

One of the other points I touched on was that I was advised on Twitter that these prisons were going to be used partially to accommodate English criminals. Now, before I go on let me repeat the point I made in the earlier post. That for the purposes of what I'm going to chat about "English criminals" means those who were (before incarceration) English people living in England and not those who crossed the Severn Bridge.

Again I stress this was on Twitter but the specific city mentioned to me was Birmingham. And I was reminded of this by the news that on Sunday there was a seven hour standoff between prisoners and staff at HMP Birmingham. Apparently there was disorder, with paper records being set alight, stairwells being set on fire and so on. Exactly the cause of all of this is unclear, but for the purposes of discussing Baglan that doesn't matter. These were category B and C prisoners...exactly the type of prisoners destined for Baglan.

Now if what was told to me on Twitter is correct, you have to ask yourself this. There are I'm sure many isolated spots in Warwickshire where a prison could have been built to accommodate any overcrowding. But no. The authorities decide to build them in Wales. In the case of Baglen Old South Wales is fulfilling the functions New South Wales did.

And what the disturbances of the weekend shows is that you don't have to be a category A criminal to create violence. But hey that's not going to be Birmingham's problem if they're bundled to Baglen.

So building a prison in Baglen needs to be opposed. Not just for the specific local reasons but the image it will send out about Wales as a whole. My favourite description of Wales is that it's "Italy with rain" let not the phrase "Alcatraz with rain" take over.

Until the next time.