changes in Bermuda's criminal justice system.

Judge Stephen Tumim's report highlighted major concerns in Bermuda's courts and prisons when it was published in January.

And yesterday in Parliament, Minister of Delegated Affairs the Hon. Sir John Sharpe told members that Tumim's report had been commissioned to solve those problems.

One of the major worries the report addressed was institutionalised racism backed by the fact that Bermuda's prison population has a disproportionate number of young black males.

The report said that an investigation needed to be made into perceptions that persons of different races and backgrounds were treated differently by the system.

Sir John admitted that there was a strong belief that racism does exist at upper management levels in Bermuda business, and that Government has been looking to the United States in an effort to redress the balance through training. In this way it was hoped to improve the economic picture for black youths who might otherwise find themselves involved in crime.

He said: "While most whites see institutionalised racism as a perception, most black people believe it is a reality, hence, it must be regarded as such.'' Judge Tumim called for the setting up of a review body and the incorporation of a race relations division in the Human Rights Commission. Both areas are now being discussed by Government.

The Minister introduced the report to the House, stating that it was a subject for debate which may lead to a white paper in the future.

He said: "Judge Tumim, and his committee, have brought their considerable expertise to look at our problems as we strive towards a more just and equal society. His report is provocative, challenging, emphatic and empathetic.'' Sir John said the report asked if sentences were having the desired effects or leading people into more involvement in crime.

The report has stressed concerns of over-incarceration and unnecessary incarceration for crimes like traffic offences and wandering abroad.

Concerning non-custodial sentences, Sir John said that Bermuda had not yet introduced curfews or electronic monitoring of offenders and that the Government would reserve any decision on new ideas until later. He said that community service was available but not widely used.

He also said that there were some doubts expressed in legal circles over bringing the Police, the prison services and probation services under the same Ministry, another Tumim recommendation.

However, plans to move legal aid from the control of social services to the Supreme Court had been supported by the Chief Justice, the Hon. Sir James Astwood.

Sir John said that Government agreed that under 16-year-olds should not be imprisoned, a drug strategy group should be formed, complaints against Police should be investigated by an outside body and Police interviews should be video-taped or tape recorded.

The Chief Justice had agreed that proceedings in Supreme Court could be recorded, but questioned whether it would work in Magistrates' Court.

Another Tumim recommendation, a "halfway house'' for people about to leave prison, has been discussed with the Salvation Army and the Prison Fellowship.

Problems with youngsters on motorcycles could be addressed by teaching them road skills while still at school, according to Sir John, although any major project would have to be outside school hours.

Drug offenders would get little joy applying for visas to the United States despite Government efforts. Sir John said that the US Government continued to see drug abuse as a federal offence and no exceptions could be made.

Shadow Minister of Delegated Affairs Mr. Stanley Morton accused the Government of bringing in the report because of the imminent election.

Mr. Morton said: "It is a big sell. They say it is for the betterment of Bermuda. But there is no question that this report has uncovered injustices that have perpetuated for a long time.

"They have pulled the blanket off to expose a body of institutionalised and individual racism, injustice and inequality.

"We try to give this image of beautiful Bermuda but underneath there is dirty linen.'' Mr. Morton said that he agreed with the Tumim recommendation that the Police should work harder on providing a public service.

He said there was too much concentration on petty crime rather than dealing with larger issues. He said Police should meet young people on their own turf in their clubs.

Mr. Morton described racism as "cancerous'' which had been contributed to by Government.

Health and Social Services Minister, the Hon. Quinton Edness said that Government could not be blamed.

Mr. Edness said: "We all have to take responsibility for society, but not for what happened in the past.'' He said that institutionalised racism was partly being countered in educational reforms. "I take the view that we have to talk about racial matters if we are going to improve the relationships in our society.

"Institutionalised racism comes with many faces. Sometimes it is unintentional and sometimes it is deliberate.

"It is not because black people are lazy. This country has been built on the backs of many people and many black people. The black population came from a history of slavery and we were not taught the mechanisms of how to succeed economically.'' He said Government was considering following the United States in training young people who had "fallen through the cracks.'' Pressed by the Opposition for his own opinion, Mr. Edness said he believed black people were treated differently in Bermuda.

It was a reality that people of different races, backgrounds, and sociological statuses were treated differently.

"I know it's a reality, but I accept it's a perception for other people,'' he said.

Mr. Edness said resolving racial differences was crucial for Bermuda to make progress.

Shadow Health and Social Services Minister Mr. Nelson Bascome played on the word perception.

He said it was the PLP's perception the debate on Judge Tumim's report came at a time when an election was likely within the next 12 months.

And he questioned the amount of money spent on the report.

Could it not have been better spent on putting social programmes into place? And Mr. Bascome asked why Government, if it was serious about the Tumim report, had not come up with legislation hard on its heels.

Mr. Bascome suggested implementing Tumim's recommendations would surely do away with the need for a new prison.

Tumim, after all, urged eliminating imprisonment of minor offenders, which made up the bulk of the prison population.

Without minor offenders -- those incarcerated for driving infringements and wandering abroad -- prison numbers would slump to about 60.

Mr. Bascome also called for the community service officer to be better resourced.

It was unfair to expect him to operate without a proper budget.

Turning to human rights, Mr. Bascome said he was concerned by the attitude of some employers.

Over the last few months people had been dismissed in apparent contravention of human rights.

Mr. Bascome continued by backing Tumim's plea for more community policing.

And he underlined the importance for parish constables to forge links with neighbourhoods.

"It allows Policemen to show they are human beings.'' On Tumim's recommendation for the Probation Service to be brought under the same umbrella as the Police and Prison Service, Mr. Bascome voiced some opposition.

"The individual has some solace with the Probation Service,'' he said.

That relationship would be harmed if there were links with the Police or Prison Service.

Deputy Premier and new Works and Engineering Minister Mrs. Ann Cartwright DeCouto focused on one recommendation -- the "adoption to Bermudian needs of the code of non-custodial sentences contained in part 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (UK)''.

Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto, a veteran lawyer, said she did not support this at all, and it was now accepted in Britain this part of the Act was a "grave error''.

It had led to "havoc'' in Britain with a mass outcry from magistrates.

But Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto stressed she was not supporting a "lock 'em up and throw away the key'' approach.

Some offences -- such as rape -- deserved very long sentences. But others did not.

Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto said magistrates in Bermuda already had non-custodial options, such as probation, community service, or fining.

"It is my firm view the discretion of the judiciary should not be tampered with.'' It was right for magistrates and judges to have a range of maximum and minimum sentences to hand out, said Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto.

Government firmly believed long custodial sentences were sometimes appropriate for the public good, and demanded by society.

Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto said Government supported prisons as a secure place for offenders -- but also as a means of rehabilitation.

Independent MP Mr. Stuart Hayward warned Government about the dangers of selecting certain Tumim recommendations for implementing -- and rejecting others.

It was necessary to adopt the full prescription to cure the Country.

Mr. Hayward said Government first had to change its attitude of denial that a problem existed -- if it was serious about improvement.

"I am suggesting the attitudes that are going to have to change first are those of the leadership of the community.'' One of Tumim's underlying premises was that every human being deserved respect.

Government had an opportunity to "live'' this recommendation by treating people in the House of Assembly with respect, said Mr. Hayward.

He added Government should also have invited a broader political representation on the committee charged with implementing Tumim's recommendations.

"You can't say you have a democracy but then act as if you have a dictatorship.'' Mr. Hayward also took a swipe at Mr. Edness for giving the impression he did not welcome differences of opinion.

He attacked Mr. Edness for appearing to prevent people other than the "favoured few'' being appointed to the proposed new Drug Commission.

"I myself wasn't consulted. Government must make sure the broadest cross section of the community is involved.'' Mr. Hayward said Tumim's call for a working party to examine Bermuda's social conditions was key.

But he said the main issue facing Bermuda was not race -- rather one of political partisanship.

"There is a political bias that overrides everything in this community,'' he said.

And he told Government: "First don't deny it, then change it.'' Mr. Hayward said bias was shown in the way the Bermuda's independence campaign organisers were vilified.

Another important recommendation was for a Government bookstore to make official documents, including laws, accessible to the public.

"Without adequate information people are disadvantaged.'' In an impassioned speech lasting nearly two hours, Shadow Environment Minister Mr. Julian Hall railed against Bermuda's "institutionalised racism''.

Such racism had been spotlighted in the Tumim report, he said.

But as a preliminary observation, he stated: "If the UBP is truly going to eradicate institutionalised racism it must first eradicate itself.

"It's the way I feel, I believe it to be true, and in my heart of hearts I know it to be true.'' Mr. Hall said he was not of the view institutionalised racism was "some new discovery'' -- as Sir John Sharpe and Mr. Edness appeared to make out it was.

He said such racism was steeped in Bermuda's entire system, and had been supported and perpetuated by the UBP.

The UBP had the stewardship of the Country since party politics and the stewardship of that system, he stressed.

"I don't think anyone can resile from this. It is almost a trite proposition.'' Mr. Hall, pulling no punches, waded into Sir John Sharpe and Mr. Edness, accusing them of political grandstanding during the Tumim debate.

He said their pledges to combat institutionalised racism were of a "cynical and hypocritical hue''.

They were members of a party which had destroyed the lives of generations of black men and women.

Mr. Hall said the only UBP member to speak honestly on the Tumim report was Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto.

But he fundamentally disagreed with her on the recommendation over non-custodial sentences -- a foundation block in the report.

Bermuda needed to stop sending people to prison. Incarceration should be the very last option.

Mr. Hall highlighted the recent case of a child molester, and the outcry when a judge gave her probation.

He wondered how much outrage had been whipped up by the media.

But he said it demonstrated what a punitive society Bermuda was, where the instinct was for retribution rather than treatment, compassion and help.

Locking people up satisfied society's desire for retribution, but it did nothing for the prisoner.

Mr. Hall said it had been absurd to tell Judge Tumim to examine the perception people of different races were treated differently.

"The real task was to investigate the reality,'' he said.

Mr. Hall pointed to a Government survey which showed a black household, on average, earned $20,000 less than a white one.

The Elbow Beach dispute also highlighted institutionalised racism.

While management breached the law by refusing to recognise the Bermuda Industrial Union, union leaders were arrested during industrial action.

It was time for Government to stop talking hypocritically, said Mr. Hall.

It was also time for Bermuda to have a home-grown Police force, without British and West Indian officers inflicting their own values.

Mr. Hall pledged the PLP would monitor carefully Government's reaction to the call for more community policing.

He also called for multi-party representation on Tumim's recommendation for a working party to examine Bermuda's social conditions.

The Hon. Sir John Sharpe.