devolution of justice to Wales in a parliament debate in Westminster. She stated ahead of the debate, “Scotland, Northern Ireland, London, Manchester. All enjoy either full control, or a degree of devolved control of the delivery of justice." “Wales, on the hand, continues to be treated as an appendage to England despite overwhelming evidence of the harm that causes." In response to the Westminster debate led by Liz Saville Roberts, the UK government said "The UK Government disagrees with the devolution of justice to Wales..." In December 2022 first minister Mark Drakeford reiterated his desire for devolution of justice and said about Gordon Brown's Labour manifesto proposals of devolution of probation and youth justice, "in a practical way, we should focus on those aspects first, and if we can secure their devolution to Wales, then we will be able to move on from there into the other aspects that would follow." In the same month, Welsh academics, Professor Richard Wyn Jones and Dr Robert Jones advocated for the devolution of justice to Wales and published a book "The Welsh Criminal Justice System: On the Jagged Edge." Wyn Jones added, “The Welsh criminal justice system remains stranded in a kind of constitutional limbo or no-man’s-land: neither quite Westminster’s nor Cardiff Bay’s. As a result, this is a policy area in which the writs of both levels of government are constrained not only by problems inherent to criminal justice, but as a direct consequence of a unique and overly complex set of constitutional arrangements." “Devolving justice does not of itself guarantee a better functioning Welsh criminal justice system, but the current system is failing Wales, its people and its communities, very badly. And there is no prospect of those failings being addressed in any serious and systematic way until justice is devolved.” Goals of a Welsh justice system There been calls for justice be devolved to the Senedd by the Welsh Government, as outlined in their manifesto commitment. The government produced a document titled "Delivering justice for Wales" in May 2022, written by Mick Antoniw and Jane Hutt. The publication says that devolution of justice to Wales is ‘inevitable’, and proposes the following "core components": A focus on prevention and rehabilitation. Reducing the prison population by pursuing alternatives to custody where appropriate. These include programmes to tackle mental health issues and support and treatment for drug and alcohol misuse. Using a rights