I THINK the sheriff gave Natalie McGarry about the right sentence in the circumstances (‘Natalie McGarry should not have gone to jail ... few women should’, June 9). We have to be careful not to treat women differently than we treat men in the same situation. Given the current options the sentence seems in line with others.

Now, in some better future I would like to see a whole range of alternatives to prison for many criminals, both for women and men. Done properly this would not be cheaper, it may even be more expensive, but it would have better outcomes. However, we need to have that better system available before people can be put through it.

The donations which were stolen were no doubt nearly all small donations, many made by people who could scarcely afford them. This wasn’t redistributing money from the rich to the poor, Robin Hood style. The betrayal of those in the independence movement is bad enough, but taking money from a food bank and small charity is even worse.

David Hansen
via thenational.scot