A report by the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University reveals that over a third (37%) of deaths among former prisoners on probation in Wales during 2024-25 were drug related, a higher proportion than the combined figure for England and Wales. The report highlights systematic failures in the criminal justice system and calls for urgent political action. Dr Robert Jones, the report's author, emphasised the lack of public debate on addressing these drug-related deaths and questioned whether the Welsh government has sufficient powers under the current devolution settlement to tackle the underlying causes.
The report also notes a 24% rise in homelessness among prison leavers supervised by Welsh probation services, with 695 recorded as rough sleeping on release in 2025-26. Welsh homelessness charity Wallich stressed the need for a coordinated approach treating drug use as a health issue rather than a criminal one. The Welsh government has called for devolving control of prisons and criminal justice to better address these challenges.
Read the full story: BBC UK News.
Source: BBC UK News. Aggregated summary, not independent reporting.