ALTHOUGH the Iraq situation is preoccupying everyone's thoughts, and rightly so, our anxieties should not blind us to domestic policy, and what the Blair Government is doing while our attention is directed to the international scene.

I wish to draw to your readers' attention what is happening in the penal system, particularly the shocking revelation that special prisons are being created to accommodate an unprecedented increase in the number of pensioners being sent to prison.

Because many of them are infirm, some suffering from mental illness, special prisons are being built or fitted with stairlifts and other facilities fitting to the disabilities of the elderly. A wing has already been adapted at Portsmouth's Kingston Jail for the senior offenders, and another is planned for Norwich.

Home Office statistics demonstrate that the number of jailed pensioners has increased by 50 per cent since 1999, to more than 1,000. Surely a pensioner suffering from Alzheimers is not responsible for his or her actions, and deserves compassion and sympathy rather than punishment and incarceration? In a civilised society, is there any justification of sentencing people in their 70s to terms of imprisonment, particularly when the offenders have pleaded that they had to resort to crime because they could not manage on their pensions?

Many of these pensioners have contributed to their State pensions throughout their working lives, in the expectation that the State would provide sufficient income to meet their basic needs. Some may have suffered the deprivations, or fought in the Second World War.

It is repugnant that elderly people are being given a criminal record and are suffering imprisonment because their impoverished circumstances turn them to shoplift. Through their working efforts, they have contributed to the creation of the Welfare State, which my generation now enjoys. Is this an example of Tony Blair's humanitarianism that elderly and infirm people are suffering neglect and economic deprivation to the extent that they are prepared to break the law, incur the shame and disapproval of society, and forfeit their freedom because they can't make ends meet? The money spent in prosecuting and imprisoning the elderly could be directed to giving greater economic support for pensioners.

I am currently obtaining signatures on a petition to the Home Secretary, to ask him to desist from imprisoning pensioners. If any of your readers are interested in adding their signature, please contact me. This shameful practice must stop.

Mrs Maureen J Woodward

25 Duxbury Avenue

Harwood

Bolton, BL2 3HN