Det Chief Supt John Carnochan and Prof Fergus McNeill (Letters, January 31) write eloquently and passionately about the need to rethink our penal policy, and the desperate need to rethink our attitudes to offenders and offending, as evidenced by most of the responses to the recent remarks of Scottish Prison Service chief executive Colin McConnell ("Call for inmates to have phones in cells", The Herald, January 30).
As a nation we need a change of heart towards those who offend, not as a "soft touch" Scotland but with greater understanding of what is needed to turn lives around.
Only when we are in the business of turning lives around will we see an end to the revolving door of re-offending which destroys so many lives, including those who are made victims of crime.
What is needed most is support, for the families of prisoners in the communities where they live and for those who have been imprisoned when they return to those communities.
In support, both the expert kind and plain ordinary friendship and kindness, there is redemption and there is hope.
Rev E H MacRae,
Convener,
Joint Faiths Advisory Board on Criminal Justice,
Inglewood House,
Alloa.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article