"WE should build many more prisons, lock up many more people and preferably throw away the keys," says David Quarrie (March 13).

Sounds good, but it has been tried in the US. We are top of the incarceration and violent crimes league. There is a lot to learn from American experience, some good, some not so good. Punitive sentencing is in the second category.

Brian A. Jones,

Clinton Street, Brooklyn,

New York.

Updated: 12:09 Tuesday, March 19, 2002