A woman has called for greater controls on work release for prisoners after a Government contractor allegedly paid her imprisoned ex-husband in cash, defying Prison rules.

The woman, who asked to not be identified, told The Royal Gazette she has quizzed senior civil servants if the contractor will continue to get work from Government. She also wants to see changes in policy and laws on how civil prisoners are paid for their work and more powers for magistrates in getting child support payments.

Prisons Commissioner Edward Dyer and other top civil servants recently met with the woman and reviewed how the work release policy is implemented. Mr.

Dyer has since instituted better monitoring.

He also confirmed the employer in question was actually a sub-contractor, hired by a contractor to Government but would still not get any contracts in the future.

"I thought that if you were in prison you were not to be paid in cash,'' the woman said recently. "Don't they still confiscate any money that prisoners are found with? "I thought they had rules that it goes into the prisoner's account until that is taken by the courts to pay the woman or women and the children that the courts say he owes money to.'' It was during a December 19 appearance in Family Court in front of Magistrate Carlisle Greaves that the woman received $1,400 from three months of remittances while her ex-husband was on work release in prison.

She continued: "I understand that when the Prison officer responsible for monitoring the payments took the December 19 cheque to the bank... they told him there was insufficient funds in the account.

"They told him it was a `credit only' account,'' she said in disbelief.

"He's using civil prisoners on day release -- probably at lower wages. He will get paid by Government but when will the women those men owe get paid? "How can this man be getting Government contracts if his business is not solvent?'' the woman asked. "How can the taxpayer's trust be put in such a business? I want to know why.

"I appreciate that Government is offering local businesses contracts and getting the civil prisoners work to pay off their debts. But there is something fishy going on.'' The woman explained Magistrate Carlisle Greaves said he is powerless without legislative changes.

"Mr. Greaves told me to go see Paula Cox,'' she said. "He said that there was nothing he could do without a change in the law. Can somebody help me? "Mr. Greaves agreed that whatever money my ex-husband makes must go into his account. But what about the money that he has already made while in prison? Where did that money go?'' She continued: "I want people to know that you can't treat women in these situations as if they don't matter. Government need some firm guidelines. Yes, Mr. Greaves is right, you need new laws on this.

"I've got less than $5,000 in the year he has been incarcerated, and, mind you, I wasn't getting anything before but I think I should get what my daughters deserve.'' "I told them that if my money was not in my account then The Royal Gazette would hear about it. I said that I would have no alternative.'' At the start of 2000 her ex-husband owed $30,000 in child support for her two daughters, who are now in college.

The ex-husband spent most of last year in as a civil prisoner for non-payment of child support.

The woman said Mr. Greaves got an agreement that he would pay $250 a week to pay off his debt "and that it should take two and a half years''.

"The problem is that I received a cheque for $1,400,'' the woman explained.

"I understand that my ex-husband had been paid in cash for some time. But he had not been turning in any money to Prisons.

"I wrote a letter to Mr. Greaves explaining my situation and I took it upon myself to phone the places where my ex-husband worked,'' she continued. "That was to find out where he had been working and how much. He is a qualified mason. I know what he can earn.

"And I phoned Prisons (but) the officer said he didn't have on record any recent payments by my ex-husband,'' she continued. "Obviously my ex-husband had been working but hadn't been turning in his money that he was earning.

"Will (the employer) honour the December 19 cheque before he gets paid by Government again -- will Government make him do it?'' the woman asked.

"Will he continue to get workers from the work release programme and is he still going to get Government contracts? If this has been going on I sure hope not.'' Commissioner Dyer explained Prisons policy is that work release and Civil prisoners are to be paid by cheque only. When they are paid in cash the employer is expected to provide a satisfactory explanation as to why.

Commissioner Dyer said: "I met with my officer responsible for this area and that prisoner did receive cash and made payments.'' "Cheques from that employer were not acceptable at the bank, he was not authorised to sign cheques -- they wouldn't uphold them at the bank,'' Commissioner Dyer explained. "That individual was subcontracting for someone else. He was not contracted to Government for the work.

"While I don't know about the rest of Government, he will not be doing any work for Prisons,'' he continued. "We stopped that last year. And we are putting in some additional tracking in place to make sure that this does not happen again.'' Commissioner Dyer admitted that "some dialogue is still ongoing'' within Government on legislative changes.

When contacted after the meeting, the woman said she was pleased with the outcome and hoped that changes put in place would avoid the necessity of women going to the media.