LIBERAL Democrat David Harrison (Letters, August 11) trots out the usual recorded messages from the anti-prison lobby for allowing offenders to run amok on our streets.
According to Councillor Harrison, Britain has the highest prison population in Europe. This is meaningless because the only measurement that matters is how many prisoners there are in relation to the number of crimes committed. On that measure, we have the lowest prison population in the western world. For every 1,000 crimes committed in the UK, there are approximately 13 prisoners compared with well over 29 in the rest of the EU and a whopping 166 in the US.
I have just listened on radio to the Lib Dems' former spokesman on crime, Mark Oaten MP, calling for prison to be abolished altogether.
He conceded that this would be unpopular and freely admitted that he can take this line because he is standing down at the next election, so doesn't have to worry about the electoral consequences.
Cynical this may be, but there are plenty of others in his party who secretly agree with him. Don't let the Lib Dems anywhere near penal policy.
C SMITH, Totton Branch, New Forest East Conservatives.
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