Madam, - Clifford Coonan's report on a UN visit to China (The Irish Times, August 31st) contains the statement that "China currently has the biggest prison population in the world, with 1.5 million inmates held in 670 jails".
However, the prison population of the US is currently 2.1 million according to the official website of the US Department of Justice. Given that the population of China is 1,304 million and that of the US only 296 million, if China were to imprison at the same rate as the US, it would have a prison population of 6.6 million.
I think this puts China's 1.5 million total in an entirely different light. - Yours, etc,
SIMON McGUINNESS, St Joseph's Cottages, Ashtown, Dublin 7.