Sir, - What kind of society is it that allows a young woman of 20 to die in jail? What kind of society is it that makes a young woman feel so worthless, so guilt ridden, that she takes her own life? How can such a young woman inflict such terrible violence towards herself? Who made her feel so lousy about herself?
I wept when I heard about her fate on the Pat Kenny show. She was only 20, she could have married, had babies, gone to college, travelled the world. Instead she is now a corpse in a morgue. Do young women have to kill themselves to make a statement about this woman hating, violence loving society? I am thinking of her now, sitting alone in a cell, hating the person she had become, hating the society that had turned her into a criminal and seeing nothing but a blank wall. Seeing no way out but self murder. And she is not alone.
Many others have taken the same journey and, seeing nothing but a blank wall, have decided to end it all. No more sunsets, no more leafy springs, no more kisses, no more wishes, no more dreams . . . just blank blank blank. If anyone is sitting in jail right now, thinking of ending it, please don't do it. Outside those walls it is spring, the buds are bursting, it's really beautiful. - Yours, etc.,
Wicklow.
PS: And I know what people think; any woman who shoplifts is a disgusting slag.