REHABILITATION in any difficult situation, including prison, must be right and worth trying" says Margaret Lawson (Letters, February 2).

I fully agree, but we also need to have the courage to stop trying when it becomes obvious we are being taken for fools by immoral, unscrupulous people only interested in themselves.

Hilary McElroy,

Beckfield Lane, York.

Updated: 11:27 Thursday, February 12, 2004