Prisoners could be made to buy their own clothing as the Department of Corrections aims to cut costs.Prison Commissioner Edward Lamb has stated the Department is considering ending its practice of purchasing underwear, socks and sneakers for inmates.They could also be made to foot part of the bill for their medical needs and other expenses, under legislative changes currently in the pipeline, according to Lt Col Lamb.He was responding to a suggestion from Royal Gazette reader Gerald Bean, a former officer, who said taxpayer dollars are being wasted while the cost of each prisoner is more than $85,000 per year.In a letter printed on Page 4 today and copied to Lt Col Lamb, Mr Bean suggested prisons revert to the old system of making prisoners pay for their own underwear, socks and sneakers.Lt Col Lamb replied in an e-mail, also copied to this newspaper: “This is very definitely an area we are currently looking at in order to reduce costs.“Also, we are looking to change legislation (which currently restricts what we can and cannot do in this realm) to allow us to implement a system of ‘co-pay’ for other expenses including medical costs, and other such items. This is a work in progress.”The Department of Corrections’ budget was slashed by nine percent last February, from $30.1 million to $27.3 million. Former Attorney General Michael Scott has also promised a review of the prison service by an independent audit firm.In his e-mail, Lt Col Lamb also hinted at measures to avoid overstaffing, ensuring money isn’t wasted providing unnecessary classes, and strictly monitoring sick leave.Mr Bean had suggested the officers training section was top heavy with a chief officer, principal officer and divisional officer; he said two of these positions were a waste of time, particularly when there are no recruit classes.Lt Col Lamb replied: “In the present climate of a hiring freeze, your point about having three senior officers in the training department is a valid one.“Coincidentally, we have moved two of those officers back to the facilities until such time as the demands of that department return to previous levels.”Mr Bean suggested arts and sewing classes are pointless because they won’t help prisoners get jobs.“We need to be spending our money on teaching prisoners life skills and meaningful jobs skills, not on hobbies and pastimes,” he wrote.Lt Col Lamb responded: “We have recently reviewed the cost of providing these and have adjusted a few classes to attain cost savings.“We are, however, mindful that we have to ensure that adequate classes are available in order to keep inmates as productive as possible and to provide them with skills they can use once they return to society.“Having said that, we also constantly evaluate classes for relevance. For example, we only offer sewing classes for the females at Co-Ed.”Mr Bean said officers taking more than the allotted 63 days sick leave, and others carrying over annual leave days, were causing a large amount of overtime and burnout.Lt Col Lamb answered: “Again you are spot on and I assure you that we robustly monitor vacation and sick leave and we certainly send those officers who have substantial sick leave to the Medical Review Board.“We recognise that the management of leave is vital to effective operations and we constantly review, by facility managers and HQ, outstanding allocations.”The Commissioner also said Corrections is aiming to make the most if its Prison Farm as it aims to cut down on its food bill of several hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.Inmates are helping produce vegetables for consumption, he said, while Corrections is seriously considering resuming animal husbandry with chickens and goats.He said they are actively looking to extend the farming programme to Westgate to get more inmates involved.For Mr Bean’s letter in full, and Lt Col’s response, see page 4.