DEAR EDITOR - In recent editions of the Advertiser there have been letters suggesting that prisoners in our gaols should be further restricted and punished.

The greatest punishment that any of our seventy thousand prisoners gets is his loss of freedom. This is followed by a loss of job and income and very often the break-up of marriage and the loss of his house.

Not all prisoners are habitual criminals but they can be turned into such if they are repressed and institutionalised.

I have been visiting prisons and writing to prisoners since 1967. I have visited men who spend twenty-three and a half-hours a day "banged up" in their cells.

The killer in prison is boredom. I have seen men in one of our local prisons feigning madness because they want to be moved to a secure hospital prison.

I believe it is the aim of the prison service to educate and rehabilitate inmates to help them to face the outside world on their release. They are not fully able to do this because of lack of resources and shortage of staff.

I agree that the victims of crime should be well cared for but unless we give the criminal his self respect and humanity, the problem remains.

I don't mind being called a "do gooder" as long as I am really doing good. I have seen at least two long serving prisoners change radically for the better, and when that happens, I know that a little care and a little humanity is worth while.

Let those who advocate more restrictions and more punishment spend just six months in one of our worst prisons and they will quickly change their tune.

Max Harper, Shaw Lane, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove