Ian Rosser's complaint about the 'namby pamby' treatment of criminals anyone from a petty thief to a raving psychopath seems odd considering that britain imprisons more people per head of population than any other country in Europe (oxford mail, july 11).

What does he want? Flogging? Amputation of the left hand?

Anyway, why do we lock up so many offenders?

Some would call it 'justice'. I would call it 'privatisation'.

It is difficult to see how potential investors can be attracted to a profit-based prison system, unless there is a sure and regular supply of inmates.

Margaret Thatcher made a significant contribution, thanks to a policy that let the drug barons loose in the school playgrounds, the council estates and the prisons, and turned a minor problem into a major epidemic.

This resulted in a new statistic the drug-related crime.

The poor no longer steal because they are poor. They steal to feed a drug habit.

This policy and the local magistrates' notorious fondness for incarceration has bumped up the prison population to about 70,000, but this doesn't appear to guarantee an adequate profit level. New Labour's attempt to reach a target of 100,000 prisoners is, I suspect, a lost cause.

Apart from 7/7 last year, the organised terror campaign intended to justify the legislation hasn't materialised because the Muslims are not inclined to make themselves personae non grata in the country most of them were born in.

Gerald Samson, Preston Road, Abingdon