MANY of your readers seem to believe that the answer to crime lies in brutal punishment.

One anonymous reader, writing in the Bolton Evening News on May 7, would like to put criminals in glass houses, while another would prefer instead to use isolation torture (for 10 years). Brutal punishment isn't a deterrent either.

The severest punishment (the death penalty) doesn't prevent shootings or violent crime in American cities. Yet our police are keen to follow the American example. In Moss Side they are to go on patrol with machine guns. Just watch the violence spiral out of control. In Saudi Arabia, thieves have their hands chopped off, but even this extreme measure doesn't prevent stealing.

A lot of the causes of crime have taken years to come about and they may well take many years to solve. There is no quick fix. Rather than being isolated, many criminals might well benefit from having people to care for, other than themselves. To be evil means to care only about your own welfare. The purpose of punishment is not revenge or humiliation, but to try and turn a criminal back into a good citizen as quickly as possible while protecting the public when necessary. When we abuse criminals (or anyone else) we degrade ourselves as human beings.

Richard Hudson

Kent Court, Bolton