Punitive prison regimes just breed resentment

SIR – Prisons perform a necessary function by holding dangerous individuals where they cannot harm others; but to insist on calling this punishment is counter-productive (“To tackle crime, we have to punish people”, Simon Heffer, April 16).

The punitive prison has done nothing to change criminal behaviour for more than two centuries. Far from promoting a wish to reform, punishment makes people feel sorry for themselves and angry towards society. It also strikes a bad bargain with the prisoner – “You do the time and we’ll forget the crime.”

The new definition of imprisonment is a useful step towards turning disaffected ex-prisoners into contributing citizens, but room for proper rehabilitation in prison must also be made by using community sentences for many more non-violent offences. This can be done without added risk to the public and increases the rate of successful rehabilitation. Philip Priestley Wells, Somerset SIR – In today’s prisons, a male prisoner may expect to be kept locked up for as much as 23 hours a day and will invariably be made to share a cell and open toilet with another man. There is little time to “associate” outside the cell and rarely any time to work, learn or otherwise improve themselves.

To deliver rigorous and fair discipline coupled with rehabilitation, more staff are needed. To stop the flow of drugs into prisons and tackle the causes and effects of addiction, there must be properly funded solutions.

Whether or not you imagine that loss of liberty is punishment in itself, there is nothing to be gained from making the experience of prison life worse than it currently is. Alistair Milward London W3 SIR – I used to visit various prisons in a medical capacity. Staff there explained that prison had five main purposes.

These were protection of the public from the prisoner; punishment of the prisoner; discouraging the prisoner against committing further crimes; discouraging other potential criminals, and rehabilitation, so that former prisoners could lead crimefree, productive lives.

Rehabilitation cannot be isolated from, or given priority over the other purposes. Keith Ferris Maidstone, Kent