Letter: Criminal results of lenient courts

I COULDN'T disagree more with Anver Jeevanjee (Letters, 7 February), who welcomes the fall in the prison population. The Morgan report, Safer Communities, shows that there are now ten crimes for every one committed in the mid-Fifties. In response to this, governments have avoided effective punishment, offering instead formal warnings, official cautions, fines and suspended sentences. The result is the highest recorded crime figures in our history and the slackest sentencing. The Criminal Justice Act of 1991 is a further example, with its right of parole and with magistrates and judges not permitted to take previous convictions into account when sentencing.

I despair of any effective action by the Home Office which can only preach crime prevention.

W B Veal

Chief Executive

Wellingborough Borough

Council, Northants