Sir, - In order to deal with the current overcrowding in prisons, an option should be introduced into the criminal legal code viz: prisoners should be offered the option of a much shorter period in, say, solitary confinement, in place of their allotted sentence.
This would have the effect of reducing the cost of the prison service, releasing space for other criminals who currently go free because of lack of accommodation, and reducing crime because criminals would know there was a prison place for them. There would be an enormous saving to the taxpayer in the cost of security in all its forms - domestic, business, the gardai and the military. And if the country could become almost crime-free, money would flow from sources other than tourism. - Yours, etc., Oliver Nulty,
Oriel Gallery, Clare Street, Dublin 2.