Making the sentence fit the crime

ONE often wonders if Judge Peter Bowers would have praised a burglar for courage if that burglar, or any other so-called burglar, had actually burgled his house.

Now Judge Carol Hagen gives out a soft sentence. Are judges answerable to no one?

Surely the police who are successful in arresting potential criminals must be very disheartened when these judges seem no longer capable of making the sentence fit the crime. It is not surprising we have so much crime in the UK.

From: Brian Cockram, Coppice Lane, Hellifield, North Yorkshire.

CANON Michael Storey states that Louis Catt was jailed for eight years for aborting her baby. Regrettably, I believe she was sentenced to eight years which allowing for time off for good behaviour will turn out to be no more than four years in jail.

Unless a judge specifies a minimum term of imprisonment, the reality is that an offender will usually only serve half that sentence. At one time, it would have been necessary to serve two-thirds of a sentence before release, but it appears that with our prisons close to capacity that no longer seems to apply.

From: Max Nottingham, St Faith’s Street, Lincoln.

IT was recently recorded that 220 people had died in custody in one year. This is a disgrace and was said to be an increase on previous years. Winston Churchill said that any society should be judged on the way it treats its prisoners. These 220 custody deaths are vastly under-publicised. The lid needs to be lifted on the way people are treated when incarcerated. Our prisons are bulging at the seams and conditions are said to be Dickensian in the older prisons.

From: Roger Dobson, Ash Street, Crosshills, Keighley.

WHENEVER one opens a newspaper or turns the radio or television on someone else has been murdered in this country.

Thanks to then Labour MP Sydney Silverman, capital punishment is no longer an option as a sentence. We are left with a life sentence of usually a maximum tariff of 15 years.

I am sure that if a life sentence meant what it says, for the convicted murderer to die in prison, then the numbers murdered would be far less.

Taxing those who laboured

From: J Beaumont, Marsh Lane, Shepley, Huddersfield.

WITH regard to Nick Clegg’s proposal to introduce a wealth tax, I would remind him that we already tax wealth with a vicious inheritance tax.

Wealth which many people, myself included, built up by taking their coats off, rolling their sleeves up and doing a real job over a working lifetime.

From: Ruthven Urquhart, High Hunsley, Cottingham.

BEFORE any of his supporters become too depressed about the decline in Nick Clegg’s popularity, I suggest they 
refer to their dictionaries 
and learn that the figurative meaning of the word clegg is 
 “one who is troublesome, irritating and worrying, but whose ‘sting’ inflicts no permanent damage”.

In any event, only the 
female of the species sucks the blood of their human or animal targets.

From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.

DAVID Cameron and Nick 
Clegg insult our intelligence 
yet again.

After more than two years 
of rule, they now tell us that 
we shall have to endure more painful cuts because a £16bn “black hole” in the economy created by their non-policies has to be addressed.

Get your calculators out, boys, and take away the £14bn of taxpayers’ money that you 
throw away on overseas aid 
from the £16bn debt you 
have created during your 
tenure and, hey presto, £2bn is left.

Spend money on flood work

From: Mike Ettinger, Crabgate Drive, Skellow, Doncaster.

BEFORE the coalition Government gives more money away to people outside the UK, it should provide sufficient funds for comprehensive flood defences in the UK and in Yorkshire in particular.

I think this type of policy would get overwhelming support and also bring pressure on the Government to first look after its own.

From: Dai Woosnam, Woodrow Park, Scartho, Grimsby.

IT is depressingly familiar. Again some of our major tourist towns are flooded.

When will our Government grasp the nettle and bring our troops home from pointless foreign wars and instead put them to better use dredging all Britain’s rivers?

At a stroke we would solve 90 per cent of the flood problem.

From: Betty Williams, City Mills, York.

I WISH to thank the boys of the Fire Service on behalf of all at City Mills in Skeldergate, York, for ferrying people back and forth all day, wading through water up to their chests.

Well done. Also a word of thanks to all concerned in keeping us all safe.