Locking up convicted gangsters in tough overseas jails will help to break up Bermuda’s gangs, according to National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief.The former assistant police commissioner believes “isolating” criminals is the only way to stop them staying in touch with fellow gang members.Mr Perinchief says using prisons in the UK and other Commonwealth countries will also ease the “ongoing friction” between gang members in our prison system.With initial investigations already underway, Mr Perinchief has vowed to act quickly to deal with the Island’s worsening gun crime problem.Mr Perinchief said the get-tough measure was on his “wish list” but the cost of transporting prisoners was “not his primary consideration.”He would not be drawn on whether doing time overseas would be a tougher punishment, but he does believe it would serve as a deterrent.Mr Perinchief told The Royal Gazette: “When people are in prison in Bermuda there are lots of visits from family and friends and lots of opportunities for them to continue their communication with gang members on the outside.“It’s very difficult to insulate people when they are incarcerated in Bermuda, they want to continue with that antisocial behaviour.“This is the isolation that is needed. They won’t be able to get information from or have contact with their contemporaries. “Mr Perinchief said those convicted of shooting murders would be “top of the list” to go to prison overseas.It comes after Mr Perinchief and Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva headed up a public meeting at the Devonshire Seventh-day Adventist Church on Thursday evening.About 275 people attended the two-hour meeting with an additional 1,200 people watching it online.Mr Perinchief is reassuring people: “You will now see some action” as this is one of several get-tough proposals he will put before Cabinet.He said: “This is on my wish list, it’s what I want to see happening. It’s very, very early days but preliminary investigations have started.“I’m sure all sorts of detracting factors will arise, but it’s not as if I have pulled this idea from a hat, it has been considered before.”Mr Perinchief has cancelled his rearranged official trip to see the Bermuda Regiment at its annual overseas training camp in North Carolina.He was due to fly out tomorrow, but he said: “The Regiment will forgive me.”Mr Perinchief said: “I have to take advantage of this momentum and the public energy. They are the ones propelling everything.“Timing is everything. People want things done and as the Minister I have to respond.”Mr Perinchief said “all entities will now join together” in what he believes will be the first multi-agency tackling of crime in Bermuda.This will include a change in policies at Government level, the police tackling crime on the streets and grassroots organisations working directly with the public. It is hoped that “action meetings” will start in the next two weeks.Mr Perinchief says people will start seeing a “multi-layered approach” to crime although he knows the hardest part will be “getting the attention of gangs.”He said: “These just aren’t ideas, people will see some action.“We have basically gone over and over things the same way, but now we are going to do things differently, there is going to be a shift in everything. All groups are joining forces. Previously everyone had done their own thing with very little cross over or sharing of information.”Mr Perinchief said the public meeting had gone “extremely well” and he was “extremely gratified” by the public’s response.He said: “I thought people were very frank and forthcoming.“There was certainly a level of frustration expressed. But people were willing to provide solutions and not just criticisms.”But Carlton Simmons, Youth on the Move president, said Government should try to better understand the root causes of gangs rather than sending gang members to overseas jail.Mr Simmons said: “Using overseas prisons is a ludicrous idea. I don’t agree with it at all. I hope it remains just a thought.“It’s a typical trait of Bermuda. We don’t want to deal with the problem, so we are throwing our trash abroad. It’s a cop-out. It’s our country and we need to deal with the issues. This is just a shortcut.”Shadow Justice Minister Trevor Moniz said he was pleased the public meeting was so well attended and that the community was so forthcoming with ideas.He said: “The police are taking a collaborative and co-operative approach and getting out there and listening to the people.“The proposals put forward by the Minister were interesting. The idea (of sending criminals overseas) is certainly worth considering. But we need to hear the logistics to make sure this is not a pie in the sky idea.“Just floating the ideas is not good enough, so many things were said without hearing the rationale behind them. We now have to provide concrete solutions.”Another community leader, who did not want to be named, said: “Nothing really moved me, there were no real new ideas put forward. At the meeting all we really saw was a level of desperation. Yes, we can send them overseas, but is that really going to stop them committing the murders in the first place?“We have to stop the problems up front before they happen. That’s the real solution.”