The tragic deaths in Northern Ireland of two young people at Hydebank Wood Young Offenders Centre have just been announced (Report, 5 May). In England there have been five young deaths by suicide in custody in the last few weeks. It must surely be time to raise important questions about the vulnerability of young people in the criminal justice system, about assessments and unmet mental health needs, and why some of our most damaged young people end up in bleak institutions which, despite best efforts, cannot keep them safe.
Dame Anne Owers Chair, Transition to Adulthood Alliance, Juliet Lyon Director, Prison Reform Trust
• You state that the Lib Dems ran the council for the last year "in loose arrangement with two Greens" (Report, 6 May). Sheffield Green councillors have never entered into coalition with either the Lib Dems or Labour. On several occasions we have proposed or supported motions that were passed in opposition to the Lib Dems. Green councillors voted against the Lib Dem administration budget for 2011-12, and proposed a budget that would have reduced cuts to services.
Cllr Jillian Creasy
Leader, Green group, Sheffield Green party
• It probably was the supermarket that liberated Peter Wilby's parents from mouldy cheddar and maggoty apples (Comment, 4 May). However, in those days, supermarkets were in close proximity on the high street, facilitating price comparison. Part of our problem is the ease with which we have elided into using the same term to also encompass the hugely damaging, car-based, quasi-monopoly, profits-generating hypermarkets.
Allan Hallsworth
Waterlooville, Hampshire
• Thank you, Sam Davies (Letters, 7 May) for reviving memories of the Smethwick Telephone. Even more bizarre, following a merger with the Oldbury Weekly News, was the idea behind its successor, the Oldbury News Telephone. A precursor to the internet, perhaps?
Marilyn Shaw
Bromley, Staffordshire
• Don't know about the least helpful dance record instruction (Letters, 6 May). But the easiest has to be Do the Standing Still, recorded by The Table in 1977.
John Flynn
Chelmsford, Essex