It is all very well for Mr Causabon-Vincent to condemn probation staff as "plonkers" (The Argus, July 8).

Is he correct? Let us consider the evidence.

Prison may be the right place for dangerous offenders who put the public at risk but there is a range of other penalties supervised by probation available to judges and magistrates. Probation staff work with about 200,000 offenders and 50,000 victims every single day.

In Crown Courts the use of custody has doubled in the last ten years. In magistrates courts it has trebled.

Yet all the evidence shows that a short prison sentence which gives no opportunity to address the root causes of offending is simply ineffective in cutting crime.

This is because there is insufficient time to deliver effective interventions aimed at reducing reconviction.

A longer community penalty supervised by probation staff is much more effective. Probation runs accredited offending behaviour programmes designed to challenge offences such as domestic violence, sex offending and substance abuse.

Research indicates that half of all crime in this country is committed by ten per cent of all offenders - a group of about 100,000 persistent offenders.

Many are class A drug users. Their offences are typically burglary, theft and car crime. They create a lot of victims. In partnership with local authorities, the police, the prison service and drug agencies, probation staff pull out all the stops to tackle these persistent offenders.

We also have in our society a group of dangerous offenders, including sexual and violent offenders, whose offences leave their victims traumatised and often scarred for life.

This group may be small in number but they consume a huge amount of police and probation resources.

Our Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), which place a statutory responsibility on probation and police to work together, are world class in the way they manage these offenders.

MAPPA has a substantial impact on reducing reoffending among some of the highest risk offenders.

At the heart of probation work is the concern for victims. Probation is obliged to offer contact to victims of sexual and other violent crimes where the offender has been given a jail sentence. This provides essential support to people who have been deeply traumatised by crime.

Working as a criminologist, I am well aware that probation in England is highly regarded by criminal justice agencies around the world.

Given the scale of these achievements, maybe what we need to do is offer probation staff who perform an invaluable (if consistently undervalued) task for our society a huge vote of thanks for their commitment and dedication in supporting victims and protecting the public.

De Montfort Road,

-Brighton