Murderers' friend
Sir: How splendid to read Mr Gerrard's `We murderers are not all bad' (7 January).
I have for the past year found myself working in a prison for lifers — murderers. I am not a social worker, merely a teacher, and I never meant to teach in a prison. I have had to come to terms with the punishment meted out by prison walls, and with the fact that some of these murderers have become my friends. And I have seen remorse, terrifying and haunting in its intensity. Remorse from men who have been locked up for many years and who do not forget, not for one minute of one day. And of course I have met the odd Dalrymple classic, definitely moronic, but I'm not sure about the cauliflower ears.
Society has to punish a murderer. But it is time that we decided exactly what form that punishment should take. Years of indefinite captivity, often lengthened at the whim of a vote-counting home secretary, endless and hugely expensive psychological therapy (i.e. re-enactment of a crime committed some ten years previously), surely this is far, far cru- eller than that stout piece of rope? I am not advocating a return to capital punishment; merely a return to some clear thinking from a civilised society which is, for lack of leader- ship, at the moment being run by tabloid newspapers and little grey people.
Judith Bodenham
Carlton Miniott, • Durford Wood, Petersfield, Hampshire
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