The Budget statement brought to light new programmes in the areas of crime prevention, justice, and the Regiment.

The Ministry of Public Safety and Housing has a $122 million allotment for the next fiscal year and that does not include millions more left over from previous years earmarked especially for housing projects.

The new housing initiatives to be started this year include two complexes at Southside totalling 154-units, the Perimeter Lane project with another 38 units, the 24-unit Ewing Street plan, and the 100-unit Ireland Island complex.

Some of those properties are specifically for tenants who will have rents set based upon their incomes.

The Minister of Finance also unveiled a new Ministry programme for inmates at the Westgate Correctional Facility.

It?s part of a rehabilitation scheme to equip prisoners with work skills for the construction industry so that when they are released they can more easily gain employment in an booming sector of the economy.

Meantime the budget promises a continuously keen focus on community policing, which according to Minister Paula Cox: ?Will be especially useful in neighbourhoods beset with crime and violence.?

The new budget also allows $100,000 for the Regiment to continue its student solider GED programme with the Bermuda College, an initiative touted by Minister Sen. David Burch as being particularly important.

Ms Cox also promised pay increases for the Regiment?s full- and part-time soldiers in the Budget statement, but there were no other details.

The Minister of Justice has a far smaller budget of $23.5 million. Some of that money will be spent on training young Bermudians with legal field aspirations.

That?s especially critical given the well-documented shortage of locals in some areas of the Ministry like the Department of Public Prosecutions.

Ms Cox said: ?The Ministry will continue its focus on training programmes aimed at preparing young Bermudian lawyers for leadership roles in the local judiciary including the Attorney-General?s Chambers and the Department of Public Prosecutions.?

The Minister of Justice is also keen on an Exchange programme that will send law students, professionals, and administrative staff to other countries for enhanced training.

Minister Phil Perinchief said: ?The UK, Canada and various Caribbean jurisdictions have expressed an interest in exchanging or seconding experienced personnel for periodic stints to and from our respective Chambers with a view to improving our abilities to dispense Justice to our Community.?

One of the more interesting line items of the day was buried halfway through the remarks from Minister Perinchief at a midday press conference.

He revealed a brand new initiative which gives a $100,000 grant to the Opposition Leader?s Office (OLO).

Minister Perinchief said: ?(It will) improve the (OLO?s) administration and provide the OLO with independence separate and apart from the Legislature whilst giving Government an increased level of transparency in all its dealings with the Opposition.?

Meantime, the Minister of Social Rehabilitation Dale Butler believes a soon-to-launch programme under his Ministry called Mirrors can be a crime prevention tool.

He said: ?At the end of the programme we expect to have young people who have re-established a firm connection with society.

?These young people will have transformed their outlook on life ? they will be willing to prepare themselves to take a productive place in society and in their families.?