Sir, - Mr Noel Coghlan (June 1st) claims that Mr O'Donoghue's proposal for more prison places surpasses his understanding. I find Mr Coghlan's opposition to the proposal equally puzzling. He comments: "As a nation, we have an unenviable record when it comes to locking up our fellow citizens". By "our fellow citizens" I assume he means the thieves, vandals, rapists, attackers and murderers that fill our prisons. I doubt if the euphemism he uses is employed by victims of crime and, based on his letter, I doubt if he has met any to find out. While I am not a member of any victim support group, I think it is safe to say that someone who has been viciously assaulted or mugged would not refer to their assailant as "my fellow citizen". The central plank of Mr Coghlan's argument against increased prison spaces seems to be the fact that there is a strong relationship between crime and social deprivation. While I am not disputing this link, I think the fact is probably of little comfort to crime victims.
In Ireland, and in other countries where citizens are not allowed to bear arms, we surrender our self-defence to the State. The Government is charged with protecting law-abiding citizens from crime, and although Mr Coghlan claims that imprisoning offenders does not make the streets safer, I personally would feel less vulnerable if I could depend on perpetrators of violent crime being put behind bars.
Mr Coghlan also concerns himself with the effectiveness of prisons. He may be interested to know that evidence exists which suggests that tougher sentences and harsher treatment in detention act as deterrents to committing crime. A 1998 Study of groups of 15- to 17-year-olds in three young offenders' institutions in southern England and the Midlands (who were interviewed by the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders) revealed that up to half of the participants agreed that stricter regimes would have a deterrent effect, and some confessed that lenient sentences had actually made them feel easier about offending. The study, called "Wasted Lives", also reported that some inmates "felt that 'short, sharp, shock' approaches would make some young people realise where they might end up if they continued to offend".
Mr Coghlan refers to "crime (petty or otherwise)". I would like to remind him that no crime is ever petty to the individual, household or business that suffers as a result. - Yours, etc.,
Jennifer O'Farrell, Bellevue Park, Co Dublin.