A bill allowing the testing of prisoners for drugs and alcohol was approved by MPs yesterday but Opposition MPs said the Government should look at how contraband is getting in the jail and predicted that it would be challenged by eagle eyed lawyers.

Prisoners will be forced to attend training, educational or rehabilitation programmes with those who refuse to be disciplined under the The Prison Amendment Act 2002.

The bill will allow prison officers to get random urine samples and breath samples while inmates who refuse face sanctions and loss of parole.

It also retittles the Prison Department, the Department of Corrections.

Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister said there was a long-standing perception of widespread drug use in prison, a belief fuelled by the inability to test inmates.

He said drug use undermined confidence in the prison service and stopped inmates from reforming while testing would give a true picture of the extend of the problem.

He said: “It is not the intent of this legislation to establish a means whereby prisoners found to be using drugs will be punished, though this will remain an outcome for uncooperative persons.

“The intent is more to establish a baseline assessment of the problem upon which efforts aimed towards rehabilitation and recovery can be built. It is hope instead of hopelessness.”

The use of booze inside Westgate is not considered to be such a problem but was still illegal said Mr. Lister.

Prison rules will make improvement programmes mandatory who advocated a carrot and stick approach.

Voluntary attendance at programmes will earn an inmate privileges while those who are directed to attend a course will be punished said Mr. Lister, who wants prisoners to make better use of their time inside.

He said the approach was in line with the Government's Alternatives to Incarceration initiative which reduced the length of time in which prisoners were eligible for parole.

He said: “Parole is not a get out of jail free card, it is not a right. It has to be earned, not only through good behaviour but now through attendance at programmes and the achievement of a drug free condition.”

The bill will have a direct bearing on parole granted said Mr. Lister. He said: “If a person serving a nine-year sentence comes before the Parole Board after three years with a history of dirty urine tests and refusal to attend drug treatment, anger management or any other relevant programme, he will not be successful.

“He will be required to serve a further three years until a mandatory two thirds sentence has been served. This is a powerful incentive.”

United Bermuda Party Home Affairs and Public Safety Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin welcomed the bill but said: “The drugs have to be coming into the prison system.”

She questioned whether the ion scan which is supposed to pick up traces of the drug was being used enough.

She wondered what would spark a test - an inmate telling tales on another or whether prison officers would act on their own hunches.

Having prison officers do the testing was questioned by Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin who said they should be handled by medical professionals to ease pressure on vulnerable staff who might be targeted by revenge-seeking inmates.

She said testing of prisoners was a step in the right direction but a national strategy to combat the drugs scourge was needed.

UBP House Leader Maxwell Burgess said the Government was tackling the problem backwards by penalising addicted inmates but not acting to stop their supply.

“Who are the people who have access to the prison? Clearly the prisoners, clearly the officers, clearly the suppliers of goods and services and clearly people who come to see prisoners.

“I haven't heard anything that tells me it's unacceptable to supply drugs to prisoners or tell you what we are going to do with people who do that.”

He said he was 99 percent sure prisoner officers were clean but he added: “If we have one dirty officer we have an obligation to get them out of the system.”

Mr. Burgess said it was important to know officers who were doing the testing were clean themselves.

He called drug dealers to be hit with harder sentences for dealing in and around the prison just like the increased penalty zones around schools and he called for the old Casemates prison to be opened to house such dealers.

Some people who were not drug users were coming out as addicts said Mr. Burgess and he said a bigger clampdown on drugs across the island would help make the bill redundant.

Mr. Burgess stressed that Government ought to make sure that they encourage prisoners to participate in the drug testing. He voiced his concern that the extent of the drug problem in prison was not shown.

“Are we doing this for one prisoner or many? ” he asked.

Mr. Burgess criticised the Government's commitment to eradicating the drug scourge and hinted that they were in denial of its existence, saying that this will cause prisoners to be the same.

He questioned whether or not prisoners will get reductions if they participated in the drug screenings or even revealed their suppliers.

His comment was met by chiding from Government MP's to which he replied: “Mr. Speaker. It is easier to snicker and laugh when it's difficult to solve a problem, as they are today.”

Mr. Burgess also said that many seniors were living like prisoners on the Island because they lived in fear of being victims of those who commit crimes because of drug habits.

“We've got to stop it from the outside,” he said. “If we are serious about drugs, how we keep it out of Westgate is how we keep it out of the bodies of prisoners.”

Government MP Neleatha Butterfield, who for years had provided educational opportunities for prisoners, was adamant that she stood firmly behind any initiative that would help drug abuse.

“This is no laughing matter,” she said. “This bill is bringing hope to those in prison.”

She said that during her tenure as chair of the Treatment Offenders Board, she had seen many inmates who had tested positive for several types of illicit drugs, something she said that was she never was pleased to hear.

Citing that Bermuda had an 87 percent recidivism rate, she said: “There's a serious problem we need to address.”

Ms Butterfield also said she knew of a prisoner, who although had been imprisoned 21 times, said he was not going ever to submit to drug testing because using drugs was his way of life.

Opposition MP Cole Simons said he supported the bill, but said he felt that it didn't go far enough because the high recidivism needed to be addressed. He said, in his opinion, nothing had been done.

“The only way success can be measured is through the recidivism rate,” he said.

Mr. Simons said the success rate in the prison reflects that of the community: “If we can't get it right there, we can't get it right on the Island.

“We must stop the cycle and the treadmill of crime.”

He also called for the voluntary drug testing of prison officers, but Government MP Wayne Perinchief disagreed.

“Everybody should be tested. It should include mandatory testing for prison officers as well,” the former policeman said.

More coverage from the House of Assembly in Monday's edition