I am glad that my old friend and my former city councillor Bill Aitken agrees with me (Letters, April 22) that (a) sending people to prison should always be a last resort and be for serious crimes only, (b) that prisons are, in effect, crime academies where first offenders learn their trade by associating with hardened criminals, and (c) that many of those with drug problems merely have them fed and exacerbated while inside.

I am glad that my old friend and my former city councillor Bill Aitken agrees with me (Letters, April 22) that (a) sending people to prison should always be a last resort and be for serious crimes only, (b) that prisons are, in effect, crime academies where first offenders learn their trade by associating with hardened criminals, and (c) that many of those with drug problems merely have them fed and exacerbated while inside.

I agree with Mr Aitken that many drug addicts finish up in prison, not for taking drugs but for committing crimes to finance their drug addiction.

But surely in such instances the focus should be on tackling the root causes of drug abuse, rather than by adding a criminal record and criminal knowledge to the addict's other problems.

Mr Aitken asks if my support for the party line (whatever that means - I am not a member of any political party, merely a concerned citizen) makes me believe that "the five-times disqualified drunk driver, the wife-beater, the knife-carrier or the shoplifter with 40 convictions" should not be jailed.

To answer his question, I believe all of these, and all others guilty of violent offences, should receive prison sentences and serve the full sentence handed down by the judge.

But those guilty of petty crimes who receive sentences of seven, 24 or 28 days, and who are released after serving half their sentence, merely clutter up the prison system and would be better dealt with by a dose of hard work on properly organised and supervised community service. And that would be a lot cheaper than spending £1000 a week keeping them lying idle in jail.

Is it surprising that young men with no qualifications, no jobs, no hobbies or interests, but with loads of teenage testosterone wander around in groups and get into trouble?

Is it surprising that inadequate young women still in their teens, but with one or two kids, no husband and no means of financial support, resort to shoplifting, prostitution or drug-dealing to provide enough money to survive?

These are the inadequate people that the Tories want to throw into prison "to punish them and protect the public".

Why not rather at least try to understand their desperate situation and do something to improve the hopeless society in which they live?

In the long run, would that not be more useful and more financially effective?
Iain A D Mann,
Kelvin Court, Glasgow.