Soft sentence

PEOPLE on Community Payback Orders (CPOs) should not of course be exposed to needless danger, but criminals being unable to cut back an overgrown riverside path (mail) in case someone falls in is taking things too far.

These CPOs are meant to be a no-nonsense alternative to jail at a time when soft-touch ideas are in fashion. The public might accept fewer people being sent to jail if the alternatives were a real deterrent but it seems CPOs are soft too.

T. Mccartney, Glasgow.