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01 April, 2009
Last week it was revealed that two houses or flats in the city are being provided for offenders and suspects who would otherwise be in jail, either on remand or finishing their sentence.
Following a question from Clwyd MP Chris Ruane about bail hostels, Justice Minister David Hanson confirmed that the two were among 24 homes at British seaside resorts being used.
Mr Hanson added: "The bail accommodation and support service provided by ClearSprings under contract to the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), to which I take this question to refer, does not provide hostels.
"It provides people on bail and on home detention curfew with private, rented accommodation in small houses and flats with up to five people sharing."
Nationally, Essex-based ClearSprings, the private company contracted to provide private hostels across the country, has opened around 160 supported bail accommodation units this year, with more on the way.
They house offenders released before the end of their sentences and people on bail awaiting trial.
Of course, we have to keep them somewhere and the prison system is bursting at the seams.
Just last week it was reported that, since June last year, more than 40,000 offenders have been released from jail early to ease the overcrowding crisis, including three violent convicts freed by mistake who then had to be re-arrested.
So, with the country's prisons at bursting point, what are the other options?
Prisoners have to go somewhere, so why not in monitored accommodation in Swansea?
However, that suggestion has not gone down too well with city residents.
Officials have been quick to point out that the scheme excludes those who pose a significant risk to the public, and those convicted of or charged with sex offences and arson.
An MoJ spokesman said: "Defendants who pose a risk to the public will continue to be held on remand.
"Those accused of sexual offences, arson and those who pose a threat to staff or other residents are not housed in these properties."
However, that has not made the idea any more popular with city residents who have made their views pretty clear on the Evening Post website.
One householder said: "This country is just wonderful, unless you are hard working or proper British, (it) makes me sick."
Samantha, from Swansea, said homes could be used for more worthy causes
She said: "I think this country is a complete sham.
"I'm registered homeless with the authorities and have been told I could have to wait two years. I have been working since I left school, paid taxes, never claimed a penny and have never been in trouble with the law. Am I just being selfish or am I right to think that it's not fair?"
Outside of Swansea these homes have not proved to be any more popular.
Last January more than 100 mums, dads, grandparents and outraged residents — armed with a 1,000-signature petition — met county councillors at the Memorial Hall to oppose a bail hostel for Brynymor, near Burry Port.
The protesters were angry that sex offenders could be housed at the hostel, even though they were told by Carmarthenshire Council's area housing manager that the ClearSprings management plan had been put on hold.
The next morning Dyfed-Powys Police were called to the house, after a break-in in which a number of pipes were damaged.
After the latest confirmation that Swansea is now also home to offenders, an MoJ spokesman said: "They are not hostels. More than half of those on the bail accommodation support scheme (Bass) are on bail.
"Others on the scheme are on home detention curfew, and they are assessed as low risk before entry, monitored during their stay, and are liable to recall to prison if they break the terms of their release.
"The service supports the efficient use of public resources by saving prison places and costs of court escorts and of visits to prisons.
"Judges and magistrates have consistently asked that we provide more bail accommodation, because there are numbers of defendants without anywhere to live whom the courts consider can be bailed if such accommodation, with necessary support, is made available."
One Swansea resident did use the Post's website to defend the idea of offenders living in the community.
Bob, from Glamorgan, said: "The advantage of this accommodation, is the fact that offenders can be monitored, and that the authorities know where they are."
So, what is the answer?
Clearly the idea that offenders could be living near families is not a popular one — no matter what assurances are given about the nature of the offences committed — but at the same time there's not enough room to house the prisoners currently in the system.
In December 2007 Lord Keith Bradley was asked by the Government to undertake an independent review to determine to what extent offenders with mental health problems or learning disabilities could be diverted from prison to other services and what were the barriers to such diversion.
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