Paupers’ prison

IT is heartwarming to learn that the Government is planning to keep petty criminals out of jail and impose community orders instead. Surely this is a grand humanitarian gesture. Or is it?

Maybe it’s just a ploy to free up more spaces in overcrowded prisons so as to lock up our new ‘criminals’ – the poor who can’t afford the day-to-day draconian taxes imposed by the Government to shore up its members’ lavish lifestyles.

Noel Cashman

Kilcrone

Cloyne

Co Cork