PRISON DRUG TRADE BOOMING

Drugs worth tens of thousands of dollars have been pouring into Bermuda's
prisons on a weekly basis, The Royal Gazette has learned.

The information follows on the heels of a recent reports that tainted drugs
have worked their way behind bars.

And many of the drugs available in Bermuda's correctional facilities have
been smuggled inside by Prison officers themselves, The Royal Gazette was told.

Yesterday, Labour and Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister said new
technologies are in place to crackdown on the drug trade within prison
walls and culprits will face zero tolerance.

As of two weeks ago, he said, an ion scan has been put in place at both the
Prison Farm and Westgate and all persons entering the facilities are examined.

While four inmates were rushed to hospital with ailments believed to be
drug related last weekend and a Police investigation has been launched into
the death of armed robber Rupert Archibald last month, Mr. Lister said
fears of tainted drugs were not a Government problem.

If tainted drugs have worked their way behind bars, he said, prison justice
should sort the problem out.

"I don't have any evidence of what actually happened other than that they
went to hospital for their ailments and were treated," Mr. Lister said.
"But we know that prisons have their own networks. If the men were sent to
hospital because of drugs which were tainted, they will work that out
within their own little system."

Mr. Lister said Government's main concern is keeping drugs out of the
prison altogether in the hopes of chipping away at the Island's "alarming"
85-percent recidivism rate.

If ion scans reveal drug traces on visitors, they will be denied access to
the prison, he said. Visitors found with traces on their clothing three
times will be banned from the facility permanently.

And anyone caught attempting to carry drugs into the jails will be arrested
on the spot, he added.

"They will go before the court," Mr. Lister said. "There is no question
about that. We have very serious concerns about the drugs getting into the
prisons and we will take a real crack at putting that to bed."

Administering the ion scans is a team of 16 recently-trained officers who
will work in pairs, he said, and a canine squad is now combing the prison
insides for stashes ­ one of which was found in a Westgate bathroom last
Tuesday.

With suspicions rife that some prison officers are smuggling themselves,
the question remains whether the staff can police themselves effectively.

The Royal Gazette understands that a 1997 report on drugs in the prison
system named a dozen officers as being suspected of smuggling and the bulk
of those officers are still employed in the prison today.

A highly placed source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said one
officer is even working on the sniffer dog unit.

Yesterday, however, Mr. Lister said he had no knowledge of the report ­
believed to have been instigated by a call from Chief Justice Austin Ward ­
but would look into the matter immediately.

"I would like to think, if the Minister in authority in 1997 did have such
a report, a programme would be in place to deal with those officers
involved," he said. "I would want that information, not just to have it,
but to act on it."

Neither former Prison Commissioner Edward Dyer nor current Commissioner
Col. John Prescod returned calls from The Royal Gazette yesterday in an
effort to obtain the report.

Former Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness, however, confirmed that a
report was prepared in that time period by Police and Prisons looking into
the drug problem.

"We did a lot of work pertaining to drugs at that time," Mr. Edness said.
"I can't recall the details but I remember the report (but) I think we
agreed it would be taken up."

Among the recommendations that arose from the inquiry were that both
inmates and prison officers should be tested for drugs, however The Royal
Gazette understands there was significant resistance to the testing of
staff from within the prisons.

Mr. Edness said prison officers were thought to be supplying drugs then and
now. "Police had a lot to do with (the inquiry) because we found some
prison officers were in fact allegedly culpable," he said.

He added: "When looking at drugs in prisons, start with the assumption
prison officers are carriers of drugs into prisons."

While the 1997 report alleged the scale of problem amounted to tens of
thousands of dollars worth of drugs entering prisons weekly, many now
believe the problem may have actually worsened.

Former chairman of the Treatment of Offenders Board, Austin Thomas said:
"It is getting worse. The problem is certainly not getting any better. We
are getting a full-scale representation of Bermuda's drugs problems inside
the prisons.

"Having been involved in this area for many years, I know that the drugs
trafficking that goes on is very sophisticated. There are huge amounts of
money involved and it is at every level of society."

Mr. Thomas said prison officers should not be discounted as suspects for
importation and noted that security at the Prison Farm especially was "not
as it should be".

He said it was imperative everyone going into prisons be searched but added
this is not being done at Westgate at the moment.

"When I go up there for meetings, I'm not searched. But if they wanted to I
would gladly submit to it. We want to really get a handle on the problem so
everyone should be checked out."

Mr. Lister said the officers' association is 100 percent behind the move to
ion scan entrants to Westgate and the Prison Farm.

"They don't wish to be associated with the drug business," he said, adding
they hoped ion scanning will either put a rest to the rumours of prison
staff smuggling or allow the officers to "weed out those bad people within
the system".

The Minister also explained yesterday that a different approach will be
taken to drug testing inmates at Westgate versus the Prison Farm.

"One real challenge we're trying to address is prisoners going into the
system on soft drugs and coming out using hard drugs," Mr. Lister said.

Westgate inmates will be tested for drugs regularly under new legislation
unveiled by Government earlier this summer in the hopes of catching these
problems before they worsen, he explained.

Alternatively, at the Prison Farm the focus will be on ensuring inmates are
not bringing drugs into the facility from work release.

Mr. Lister said Government is less concerned with busting work release
inmates who may have been surrounded by drugs all day and indulged.

"To nail him for using would be almost unfair because he's surrounded," he
said. "But there will be zero tolerance for dealing or importing into the
prison for others or for himself."

Ultimately, the Minister said Government hopes to see the number of people
incarcerated in Bermuda ­ roughly 350 ­ fall by a third in the next five
years through its ATI approach moving from incarceration to changing behaviou