Madam, – I see that the prison inmate count will exceed 4,000 for the first time in the history of the State (Front page, October 15th). Bearing in mind the cost of keeping these people incarcerated, surely we should follow Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe’s line of thinking regarding student loans (albeit now “on-hold”), and make guests of the State (of a criminal nature) pay for their “education” by way of a “student”-style loan, repayable over time.
The more times the guest would would return, the more s/he would pay for this “education”. In short, if you do the crime you’ll have to pay for the time. – Yours, etc,