June 5, 2012Dear Sir,This is my response to chairman of POA Craig Clark’s letter to the Editor.Mr Clark said they are not afraid of the forthcoming report from the British prison expert Phil Wheatley. If Mr Wheatley came here on a whirlwind visit to have a look in and to have a two-hour discussion with the POA executive, then I hope the discussion was about the recommendations of the POA and not his own. His expertise should have allowed him to extract some most needed and valuable information from some basic staff if he stayed around longer. We tend to hide the people on the ground from the experts. Is it because we do not want to show how badly we are doing our job or to give the impression that the problems start at the bottom? Be careful of what you ask for, you may get it, and some.Prison is a serious business. Bermuda prisons are far different from everywhere else. Except for the few foreigners in our system, every officer and every inmate is related in some way.This alone changes the whole dynamic of how the prison is run. The job has become personal and not professional. Nobody is that expert to come here on a whirlwind visit and have a two-hour discussion about the problems in our prison system and offer recommendations.My recommendation to Mr Clark is that he works to get all his staff to buy in before the prisons embark on implementing any recommendations. Even the staff on your side will not like change so everyone has to be on the same page. You do not have to accept the recommendations if they do not encompass the Bermuda culture.If one of your staff gets seriously injured because of others undermining the integrity of the majority, then you will lose the good ones through fear.A prison officer by nature is a non-confrontational person and because of this they rely on every other officer to stand with them at all times. Get rid of the bad ones before it happens. The POA need to be seen not to protect staff who are seen to help prisoners in wrong doings by weeding them out. The officer who had the cell phone in a restricted area (where prisoners are) should not have been defended by the POA. A cell phone is a lifeline in prison, it can get you anything you want while you innocently sit in your cell and do your time and for this to be downplayed is not good and puts more strain on staff. You will always have to watch this officer while your job is to watch prisoners.Officers who are engaged in nefarious and unsociable behaviour need to be weeded out. I know staff are hard to find but set standards and keep them. Did the POA recommend a Cadet Scheme to the Minister to be able to see and screen recruits for a longer time?We are patiently awaiting the Prisons Review Report.GERALD L BEANPaget