THE ‘Ralph’s Killers Freed Soon’ front page headline made me laugh. Only England could have an out-dated justice system archaic enough to allow custody time to be deducted from the final jail sentence.

It isn’t discouraging enough, those TV programmes about the jails in Thailand, and even some of the American chain-gang documentaries, show how it ought to be, but we in jolly old upstanding England think they are inhuman.

I’m not on about petty crimes like shoplifting, but killers and the like no longer have hanging or even the stocks or the birch to put them off and hence our criminal and penal systems are overloaded as the punishments are far too lax.

It’s about time we toughened up and changed our ways, because we are being laughed at by just about every other civilisation for being softies. Come on, let’s go to England, free housing, false teeth, glasses, dentists, the NHS and if we kill someone, we get a life sentence lasting about 12 years after they deduct the custody time.

What a doddle, go and get the passports now.

ALAN BURRIDGE, Blandford Road, Upton