Madam, - I would like to emphasise an essential point in relation to the discussion on Michael McDowell's policy of prison expansion. Although one can justify imprisonment of those who break the laws of a State, this does not change the fact that confining a human being to a small cell is barbaric and inhumane.
If we agree that becoming a more humane and compassionate society is a good thing, we should be trying to reduce the number of imprisonments. The fact that the number is increasing shows there are major problems in our current social systems.
Michael McDowell's solution to these major problems is like providing extra buckets to catch the water from a leaking dam rather than fixing the leak itself - the social inequities and alienation felt by 99 per cent of the prison population. - Yours, etc.,
RONAN KEANE, Kinahan Street, Dublin 7.