YOU report that convicted killer Simon Brown had had a year added to his sentence for absconding from Castle Huntly open prison while on a “home visit” (“Extra year for going on the run”, The Herald, April 13). Mr Brown pleaded guilty to culpable homicide jointly with another killer in 2012 and was sentenced to eight years in jail when the judge Michael O'Grady QC told the pair: "Between you, you inflicted a deliberate death on a vulnerable and defenceless man." The accused had admitted to placing a pair of handcuffs on the victim’s wrists, repeatedly punching and kicking him on the head and body, placing a plastic bag over his head, assaulting him, robbing him of his wallet and contents, placing him in a lift and failing to seek medical attention, and killing him.
Yet in these enlightened times Mr Brown repays his debt to society by absconding from an open prison three years into his sentence and initiating an expensive manhunt to recapture him.
In the same edition you report Paul White, an RBS worker complicit in the Libor-rigging scandal who avoided a £250,000 fine from the FCA because he is “facing serious financial hardship” (“’Reckless ’former RBS worker banned”, The Herald, April 13). I wonder how Scots in “proper” jails for being hard up and not paying fines feel about this? How do those who fraudulently claimed a few thousand in state benefits, and are now in prison at an individual annual cost to the taxpayer of some £40,000, feel about this?
You also cite the case of a man being jailed for six months for systematically abusing and killing puppies (“Man jailed for repeated puppy abuse”, The Herald, April 13), when the limited facts you print suggest that psychiatric rather than custodial treatment could be the order of the day.
In many systems people keep on churning things out the same way as they did yesterday when, if they had the chance to think about what they are doing, they might question their actions. I think it is about time that the criminal justice system had a good look at itself with the aid of outside non-legal assistance, as it would appear that in many cases the punishment does not fit the crime.
David J Crawford,
Flat 3/3 131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.
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