SIR – People commit crimes, get fined, but do not pay the fines, so they are not punished for their offences. Some will be accumulating yet more fines which they will not pay. Now, in these times of economic crisis, we are told that offenders owe £2 billion in unpaid fines. Jailing them will only cost us more. Let them work off their fines by winding handles to generate electricity, providing clean, green energy, keeping the offenders occupied, and, on top, we could charge a small amount to people who want to watch them doing it.

L A Hobsbaum, Willow Crescent, Bradford