Electronic tagging could be introduced to keep tabs on offenders being released back into the community, the Justice System Review has suggested.

The report, by some of Bermuda's top legal minds, was released in Parliament on Friday.

It said more needed to be done to establish non-custodial sanctions.

Committee chairwoman Norma Wade-Miller said: "We should be thinking now, in appropriate cases, about non-custodial sanctions that give back to the community, enabling offender and citizen to see each other in a new light.

"We should be thinking about electronic monitoring of offenders whose time needs to be structured and whose whereabouts needs to be supervised, but who do not need to be confined to prison.

"We need to think about mental health and educational provision and work with the talented individuals and organisations that can assist in deciding how best to apply this provision to offenders."

The legal review was partly sparked about the huge backlog of cases in the courts.

Mrs Wade-Miller wrote: "It is noted that litigation in the courts has risen to such an extent that it renders the present system almost ineffective."

The report shows that over a five-year period between 1998 and 2003 the number of magistrate court appearances has increased while the number of criminal cases has decreased.

The average number of appearances per case increased from 2.2 to nearly three while the proportion of cases taking more than ten appearances soared. The backlog in the Supreme Court is increasing with the number of cases filed in Supreme Court rising from 40 in 1997 to 60 in 2002.

It then leapt to 87 in 2003.

The figure rose again in the first few months of 2004 with 82 case outstanding with less than a quarter of the year gone.

Mrs. Wade-Miller said there was a need for at least one more Assistant Justice and one more magistrate to help clear the waiting list.

The review also suggested case management to sort out disclosure of evidence and witness availability which could save trial time and avoid last minute adjournments because of poor communication between parties.

"If legal issues on admissibility of evidence could be dealt with before juries were empanelled, this could likely either shorten or alleviate the need for a trial."

This helped cut trial time in England and Wales noted Mrs. Wade-Miller.More plea bargaining could end the need for trials suggested Mrs. Wade-Miller.