DEALING WITH CRIME NOT SIMPLE

THE LETTERS page has been busy lately with the proponents of the "simple
cure": first, the woman who says that if the Chief Justice will stop talking
about heroin it will go away, and now the redoubtable Don Bell, of
Yarralumla, says (Letters, 25 September) that if offenders were locked up
for their first offence there would be no crime.

What, forever? It is well known that minor offenders learn a lot more about
crime while they are in jail than out, that is, between the bashings and
rapes, which means they are not usually filled with the milk of human
kindness upon their release.

Most offenders do not reoffend; those who do are usually involved in
organised crime, psychopaths or are drug addicted.

There are few of the first two, lots of the last, but even many of the drug
addicted apparently do rehabilitate themselves, or die, as studies show that
most people convicted of an offence do not appear before a court again.

If it were only as simple as these armchair criminologists would have us
believe.

JENNIFER SAUNDERS, Canberra City