WHAT disconcerted me most about the prisoner mistakenly released after 30 days instead of 30 months (Daily Echo, April 13) was the fact that an arsonist who set fire to premises with people inside, including a baby, was not given a longer sentence in the first place.

Do we no longer warrant protection from the courts from this sort of offender? I have no doubt that all manner of mitigation was accepted by the court, and probably the fact that the prison system is bursting at the seams was taken into account, but this does not excuse the court from its paramount duty of protecting the public.

As I write, I am looking at today's Echo (April 14), which has a story about a disabled man being set on fire in his home and am wondering how many weeks' community service the offender will be inconvenienced by. If there are no beds available in the prisons then new inmates should be made to sleep on the floor, it is their choice to go there.

ALAN KEBBELL, Southampton.