Providence and other places in southeastern New England have undertaken campaigns against graffiti. Maybe the authorities should look at the way Boston's Back Bay district is trying to deal with the problem.

Back Bay, especially its alleys, has been under assault by vandals wielding spray paint in many colors. "Zorg," "Utah," and "Des" are some of their "tags" -- essentially signatures -- scrawled on walls, garage doors, and other surfaces.

The Back Bay residents have formed a group to fight back, by cleaning the graffiti. But what they really want is to see the perpetrators punished. That, they say, would send a clear warning.

Recently two men, aged 20 and 23, were arrested emerging from a Back Bay alley with spray paint. One, whose tag is "Gonzo," is accused of defacing 68 properties. The two, of Quincy, will soon go on trial, and if convicted, they could serve up to two years in jail.

In Providence, even the newly strengthened graffiti ordinance does not contemplate prison for the crime.

Whereas the Back Bay vandals seem mainly to operate in alleys, their Providence peers defile the sides of structures that face the street. But luckily, for whatever reason, the Rhode Island vandals have tended not to attack the most historic or beautiful buildings. This does not, however, exculpate them.

Some people in Greater Boston say that jailing graffiti criminals is overkill. "To send a task force like that against a young person in that position is a bit draconian," Cambridge artist Caleb Neelon told The Boston Globe. Mr. Neelon was curator of an exhibit of graffiti (!) at the New Art Center, in Newton, Mass., and he brags of having applied his own tag, "Sonik," in Brazil, Nepal, and Denmark.

We are not impressed by either Mr. Neelon's credentials or his argument. Far more convincing is Back Bay victim Peter Antell, who said that his neighborhood's graffiti "is an act of violence against the community."

It is said that graffiti vandals simply want their signatures seen -- as if they were frustrated artists. They may be frustrated but their activity is hardly art. Moreover, such desecration signals to citizens that danger lurks in the neighborhood: that civil authority has lost control, or simply doesn't care. The residents feel under siege in their own community.

If graffiti vandals don't realize that this is the message conveyed by their "art," jail should be one way to inform them. We think it would be just as effective in Rhode Island as in Massachusetts.