on Bermuda's criminal justice system. We want to urge all Bermudians to read the report and to give it the careful consideration we think it is worth.

This report is only the latest in a series of reports, including the major work by Dr. David Archibald, which covered all of Bermudian society with great sensitivity. These reports have the potential for creating a much better Bermuda and we think Judge Tumim's contribution is of major importance to Bermuda's future if only we have the will to act on it. We hope that the report will receive serious consideration and that it will not languish with some others in the large bottom drawers used by officialdom.

Judge Tumim's preamble is a letter to Premier Sir John Swan who initiated this report. The letter sets out the essence of Judge Tumim's thinking and is itself of great importance as an informed outsider's view of Bermuda's problems. Make no mistake, like Dr. Archibald, Judge Tumim is a highly qualified, well-informed and very perceptive man. His opinion is the best Bermuda can get. We must pay attention.

Judge Tumim says in his letter much the same thing this newspaper has been saying for some years, except that he has said it rather better.

"If a community locks up too many citizens it may preserve order short-term but will lose respect. Over-confinement acts as a school of crime, and removes the shame of imprisonment, particularly among the young. It destroys self-respect.'' We think that in Bermuda this especially applies to young black men for whom far too often a prison term has been a part of passage to manhood.

"Lock them up'' is the easy response to any criminal problem but Bermuda has to accept that while it is the quick and easy response it is too often self-defeating for the Country.

Judge Tumim also says, "A society must have the fortitude to undertake the task of removing the social attitudes that prevent people from treating each other with the respect and dignity all human beings deserve.'' There is enormous evidence to support that statement in the current debate over the removal from the law books of the criminal penalties for consenting homosexual acts between male adults in private. There is no respect or dignity in leaving that law on the books.

The bottom line of Judge Tumim's observations and recommendations is a kinder Bermuda which deals more in social solutions than in repression. He quite rightly says that young Bermudians often feel alienated. He says that a large class of young citizens see themselves as alienated from the official culture, an under-class harassed by the forces of law and order. Judge Tumim writes that many young people see themselves as non-citizens and outcasts.

We think Judge Tumim's assessment is accurate and that it is dangerous for the future of Bermuda.