Former Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Perinchief has suggested the old Casemates Prison be reopened to house hardcore criminals.

The Progressive Labour Party MP said recidivists should be separated from other criminals who could benefit from rehabilitation.

He suggested prisoners who could be rehabilitated should be kept at Westgate, while incorrugible criminals who were beyond help be locked up at Casemates.

Mr. Perinchief made the call to re-open Casemates at a PLP Hamilton Parish branch meeting on crime held at the Francis Patton School on Thursday.

Casemates, a former Royal Navy Prison at Dockyard, was closed in 1994 when Westgate Correctional Facility opened.

He said: "Legislation is in place to start progressive initiatives to have alternatives to incarceration, including a drug court.

"It might be expedient to identify recidivists and put them in a maximum security prison to separate them from the person who can be rehabilitated.

"We could reactivate the old Casemates Prison for hard core recidivists.

Isolate them from Westgate, which could be for rehabilitation.

"There is a section of the Act that says you can send a person to Supreme Court to be sentenced at Her Majesty's Pleasure. The legislation is there, we just need a place to put them.'' Mr. Perinchief was responding to a statement at the meeting from a Hamilton Parish resident that 80 percent of crime was committed by 100 people.

The speaker said: "Sometimes we have to come to the realities of life that some people that live in our society are useless and need to be removed from our society come hell or high water.

"Nothing is going to change that person beside God, so we have got to come to the reality, stop farting around, and remove these people from our society.'' Wayne Perinchief JAIL JAL