bureaucratic red tape, is has been claimed.

Ex-inmate and disgraced lawyer Charles Vaucrosson recently told The Royal Gazette about RISE -- Reformed Inmates Striving for Excellence -- which was intended to provide "internal rehabilitation of prisoners by prisoners themselves''.

Mr. Vaucrosson was released from prison over a week ago after serving 11 months of a two-year sentence for stealing nearly $400,000 from the estate of journalist Percy Ball.

He said RISE was actually the brainchild of inmate Shawn Crockwell and he along with two other inmates -- Charles Richardson and Milton Watson -- had tried to help get the project off the ground.

Crockwell was jailed for ten years in February for stealing drugs from the Supreme Court where he worked as a clerk.

The group's mission "was to try to improve the inmates' approach to incarceration'', he said.

Plans for the group included television commercials and school visits which featured inmates talking about the horrors of drugs and prison life to show the public they were against drugs.

RISE would have also pushed education by having inmates read at least one book a month, continued Mr. Vaucrosson.

And it would have encouraged inmates to follow the rules of the prison while all the time seeking to improve themselves, he added.

But the organisation's biggest plan was to distribute a monthly newsletter behind the bars -- after it had been screened by prison chiefs.

The newsletter would have contained articles on model prisoners who had done a good job in the prison and deserved to be highlighted and congratulated.

"Everything would have been positive. The Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner would even have space on the front page for their own comments to the prison population,'' said Mr. Vaucrosson.

But the process of getting approval for the project has been hit by delays from prison chiefs which has led to frustration and Crockwell is on the verge of giving up.

"Nothing has been done. Articles were written and ready to go in the first issue on November 1 but we were still waiting for approval from upstairs.'' The inmates were told the project still had to go to approval before "this or that'' committee, said Mr. Vaucrosson, when they asked what was happening.