Serious attention must be paid to appropriate sentencing of criminals

The reaction from Scotland's opposition parties to Henry McLeish's enlightened suggestions about prisons were sad and predictable (your reports and editorial, 2 and 3 July).

I am sure, however, that the SNP government will take seriously any sensible suggestions which relieves the pressure on our overcrowded jails and makes sure that only those who are a danger to the public are locked up – not the huge percentage of fine defaulters, minor miscreants, drug abusers and vandals who are being kept in our jails at the public expense of not far off £1,000 per week each.

Henry McLeish and Kenny MacAskill are on the right track. Reparation should be the sentence on most of the minor criminals instead of the "bed and breakfast" (as I have heard it described) they are doing in our jails at my expense.

Vandals should repair or pay for the damage they do, thieves should be made to pay back what they have stolen, fine defaulters should have it taken automatically off their benefits and drug addicts should be given help.

Then there would be plenty room in our jails to have violent thugs and drug dealers locked up.

DAVID McEWAN HILL

Tom Nan Ragh

Dalinlongart, Argyll

Much has been said in the media recently about prisoners being given early release, with certain sheriffs openly condemning the practice, and also about our prisons being at bursting point.

I read in my local paper, the Perthshire Advertiser, that a man charged with shoplifting a packet of sausages, a jar of coffee and a packet of bacon was remanded in custody and trial set for 14 August.

In the same section of the paper, a man charged with attempting to murder his brother was released on bail. Another charged with indecent assault on a female member of the criminal justice service was also released on bail. It would appear that being charged with stealing under £10 worth of messages is a very heinous crime indeed.

It currently costs about £800 per week to keep a man in prison. The man charged with shoplifting will cost the tax payer about £3,200 while in custody. These cost may very well increase should the man appeal against being held in custody. There is something seriously wrong with our criminal justice system and the sheriffs who are there to administer it.

STEPHEN WINDSOR

The Holdings

Perth

With more and more young people seemingly intent on carrying and using knives (your report, 14 July), is there not an argument for sending those old enough into the army?

Perhaps a tour of duty in Afghanistan would be more effective in bringing home the horrors of knife injuries rather than a visit to victims in hospital. It would help to solve the army's recruitment problems and hopefully make them better citizens in the future. Then again such a punishment would probably be breaching their human rights.

BOB MacDOUGALL

Oxhill

Kippen, Stirlingshire

I am not sure I agree with the emphasis your headline gives "Life term for two callous killers who beat and stabbed stranger" (15 July). Fifteen and ten years respectively just shows how cheap life is these days. It is wrong to take a human life and I believe that is the reason we no longer have the death penalty for murder. If we did have a mandatory life sentence for murder, there would be fewer of them and it might also be the government's answer to knife crime.

R ROBERTSON

Craighorn Drive

Falkirk, Stirlingshire