It is interesting to read that 63% of prisoners re-offend within two years of their release from prison. In the 1960s, I was a prison chaplain and it was said then that two-thirds of prisoners were back inside within two years. Forty years later we have not made any progress, and the numbers in prison increase year on year.

Despite the best efforts of those involved in the prison service, and all the changes made over the years, we have not enabled the majority of prisoners to stop offending. Is the problem in the prisons or elsewhere?

I remember one young man who was due for release from the institution where I was chaplain (Noranside Borstal). He told me that one of the ladies on the visiting committee had asked him what he had enjoyed doing in borstal. He replied: "Working on the farm." "Could you not get a job on a farm when you leave here?" she asked. His reply: "I don't think there are any coos in Drumchapel, Miss."

Therein lies a great part of the problem. After leaving prison the prisoner simply returns to his former way of life, and the pattern repeats itself. More than the individual has to be changed.

Alistair J Dunlop, 8 Pipers Road, Cairnbaan, Lochgilphead.

Labour's integrity bypass is well-illustrated by its response to the McLeish Commission's report on sentencing policy. This is an honest, bold, evidence-based strategy to move Scotland away from a system that is an expensive failure. As the Lothian and Borders chief constable said about current penal policy: "It does not deter, it does not pay back to the community, it does not stop re-offending."

Yet Pauline McNeil's response as Labour justice spokesperson is to resort to the cheap populism that has typified so much of Labour policy on this topic in recent years. She says that "cutting the prison population is an outrageous idea" and tries to play the "SNP soft on crime" card.

But it is the current system that is failing many poorer communites. Ms McNeil knows that Labour's justice policies failed and that Mr McLeish is right but she responds with soundbites she thinks will play well with the tabloids. It is this lack of vision and integrity across the board that has got Labour into its current predicament. It still thinks that adopting the old Tory approach of making tough noises on crime and punishment will save its votes and fails to remember that for decades this was the principal Tory election theme and it never made Tories electorally popular.

What this crude attempt to play on fears rather than find creative solutions has done for Labour is to alienate many socially concerned people who formed an important section of its support in the past and who no longer have respect or trust for current Labour politicians.

Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.

The Scottish Prisons Commission recommendation to axe all but a few prison sentences of under six months will do little to reassure people that they will be safer walking the streets. The primary objective of the law - to safeguard the general public - seems to have been forgotten in a bid to save money by emptying prisons.

Violent criminals, sex offenders and drug dealers should be imprisoned, and the release of some of these individuals back into the community would only increase the danger to the public. Almost daily we read of offenders released on bail or subject to a curfew order committing further crime. This can only increase with the projected explosion in community service orders.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirlingshire.

The McLeish report brings a much needed dose of evidence to the debate on penal policy. Instead of sterile arguments about whether punishment is soft or hard, the report presents evidence about the effectiveness of different sorts of punishment. Instead of assertions about public attitudes, the report presents evidence that there is public support for constructive approaches to punishment.

Penal policy is no different from any other area of government policy. It involves making tough choices about how to spend limited resources and this should be done on the best evidence available. The McLeish report provides a sound evidence base from which the debate can take place and the Scottish Prisons Commission deserves great credit for this.

Professor Neil Hutton, Centre for Sentencing Research, Strathclyde University; Professor Michele Burman, Department of Sociology, Glasgow University; Professor Hazel Croall, Glasgow Caledonian University; Professor Mike Nellis, Glasgow School of Social Work, Strathclyde University.

Professor Gill McIvor and Professor Alec Spencer, Stirling University; Professor Peter Duff, Aberdeen University; Professor Richard Sparks, Edinburgh University.