The Welsh Criminal Justice System: On the Jagged Edge

by Robert Jones, Richard Wyn Jones

Overview

The first systematic account of criminal justice in self-governed Wales.
 
The Welsh criminal justice system is unique. While Wales has been self-governed for nearly twenty-five years, the country lacks the equivalent of Scotland or Northern Ireland’s independent judiciaries and justice systems. Yet the extensive responsibilities of Wales’s own institutions ensure that they necessarily play a significant role in criminal justice. As a result, the Welsh criminal justice system operates across a ‘jagged edge’ of devolved and reserved powers and responsibilities.

This book provides the first academic account of this system. It demonstrates not only that Wales has some of the worst criminal justice outcomes in western Europe, but that even if the will existed to address these problems, the current constitutional underpinnings of the Welsh criminal justice system would make it nigh-on impossible. Based on official data and in-depth interviews, this is an urgent and challenging book, required reading for anyone interested in Welsh politics and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786839435
Publisher:	University of Wales Press
Publication date:	01/23/2023
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Robert Jones is lecturer in the Welsh Criminal Justice System in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University, and a member of the Wales Governance Centre.


Richard Wyn Jones is professor of Welsh politics and director of the Wales Governance Centre, both at Cardiff University.

Table of Contents

List of figures, tables and maps ix

Acknowledgements xi

Chapter 1 Introduction: a Welsh criminal justice system? 1

Chapter 2 Outcomes in the Welsh criminal justice system 19

Chapter 3 Whitehall and the Welsh criminal justice system: what power reveals 55

Chapter 4 The Welsh Government and criminal justice: responsibility without power 83

Chapter 5 On policy-making and policy taking: two case studies 115

Chapter 6 Scrutiny and accountability across the jagged edge 141

Chapter 7 The future of the Welsh criminal justice system 167

Appendix: List of research participants 189

Notes 191

Bibliography 211

Index 281

Editorial Reviews

"There is a wealth of empirical, qualitative and quantitative data, with chapters examining outcomes of the criminal justice system, the relationship between the Welsh government and power, policy-making, scrutiny and accountability, and the future of Welsh justice – spanning youth justice, incarceration and case studies. In contrast to much other work on this subject, the book is extremely readable and well presented, with tables, graphs, maps, and a thorough sixty-eight-page bibliography … This volume is indispensable, and Wales is a much richer place for the analysis carried out by the authors on the criminal justice system and how it relates to our communities."

Planet: The Welsh Internationalist

"This book is both an indictment and a call to action. It is impossible to read without being convinced by the data that the under-performing Welsh criminal justice system is dysfunctional, poorly-scrutinized and inhumane, trapped in a constitutional limbo of conflicting powers and responsibilities between Westminster and Cardiff. Devolution of justice is overdue: here is the critical evidence."

Liz Saville Roberts

"The experiences and needs of Welsh communities have been long neglected in the corridors of Whitehall. The Welsh Criminal Justice System provides a vital corrective, exploring criminal justice in Wales in fine detail, and setting out a clear path to creating the kind of society Wales deserves. Anyone who has a stake in twenty-first-century Wales must read this book."

Ellie Mae O’Hagan

"The book combines some painful original research data about how things have been working in Wales (or not) with trenchant analysis and a characteristically robust challenge to the assumptions of opponents, and indeed some proponents, of change … Most of that data only came to light as a result of the strenuous and untiring efforts of the authors, and in particular Dr. Rob Jones, in prising out of UK Government and other official bodies Wales-specific information which had previously featured only as part of England and Wales aggregated data. The graphs, tables and commentary in the second chapter of this book set things out clearly and starkly. Those wishing to be well-informed about criminal justice in Wales should study them."

Nation.Cymru

"Although full devolution of justice powers is not likely to occur in the near future, this important book is a vital contribution to a conversation about devolution that needs to be taking place now. It should be read, and taken seriously, by policy-makers who want to make criminal justice work for all of Wales."

the welsh agenda

"This accessible book fills a significant gap in the literature and provides an important contribution to Welsh criminal justice policy understanding and a call to action for academics to engage with this agenda. It adds a new dimension to a growing literature on public policy in Wales post-devolution, especially that which reflects on the consistency (or otherwise) of emphasis on social justice. The Welsh criminal justice system: On the jagged edge will be of interest to scholars of criminal and social justice, devolution, and Wales—as the authors put it 'anyone interested in the future of the country.'"

International Criminal Justice Review

"This book is key reading for anyone seriously interested in the condition of Wales and where the country should or might be heading. Concerned with the human face of state power in a strange constitutional situation, the authors show how the wider Welsh criminal justice system is distinct even as part of an ostensibly single England and Wales arrangement. Via principled argument and empirical evidence of poor outcomes, they investigate problems of waste, policy fragmentation and lack of accountability previously identified by the landmark Commission on Justice in Wales. The book powerfully portrays progressive politics without the justice function as like Hamlet without the Prince."

Richard Rawlings

"This book is a powerful and eminently readable analysis of the Welsh criminal justice system. It examines the basic issues of costs, the ability to deliver joined-up policy, labyrinthine complexity, accountability and outcomes. With its in-depth research, it shows why the system is failing Wales, and reinforces the compelling need for fundamental change."

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd

"The Welsh criminal justice system: On the jagged edge is a compelling read, groundbreaking in its exposition of the unique formations of the Welsh criminal justice system (WCJS) … this book should be considered foundational for students and scholars of Welsh criminal justice. In addition, it provides a thought-provoking text for criminologists interested in the distinctions between criminal justice systems. Particularly those criminologists researching criminal justice in the UK who may have, until now, had little understanding of the complex and interesting case of Welsh criminal justice ‘on the jagged edge.'"
 

The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice