Pubdate: Sat, 15 Mar 2003
Source: Royal Gazette, The (Bermuda)
Copyright: 2003 The Royal Gazette Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.theroyalgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2103
Author: Ayo Johnson

WESTGATE: WHERE DRUGS ARE EASY TO FIND

Bermuda's prisoners are, for the most part uneducated, on drugs, and
have been in prison before.

But a sizeable majority are looking on the bright side of life, a
survey released yesterday has found.

Drugs are being used on a regular basis in the Island's prisons and
most prisoners believe it's not too difficult to get drugs in prison.
While that may not surprise too many Bermudians, the survey, which
elicited prisoner responses on a range of issues, is believed to be
the first of its kind in the Island's prisons.

Commissioned by Work Inc. and conducted between February and October
last year by Profiles of Bermuda, the survey found that 45 percent of
inmates had used drugs within the last six months, more than ten
percent within the last week and 7.5 percent within the preceding 24
hours.

Almost half of the inmates surveyed said it would not be too difficult
to get drugs behind the prison walls.

More than half (176) of the 328 prisoners at the Co-ed facility, the
prison farm and Westgate were surveyed, according to Shawn Crockwell,
Work Inc's Deputy Chairman.

"A startling 89 percent stated that they had used drugs, both legal
and illegal before," the report noted.

Marijuana was the most commonly used drug, at 75 percent, followed by
alcohol (72 percent) and all forms of cocaine (42 percent). Among
cocaine users, 37 percent used crack cocaine, while 29 percent used
other forms of cocaine the study found. One third of inmates used
heroin when asked which drugs, if any, they had ever used.

"Illegal drug use appears to be a challenge for inmates with a
multitude of drugs being tried or used," the report continues.

"Indeed, one fifth are serving sentences related to drug offences. It
is also likely that of the 40 percent serving time for theft related
offences, drugs could be a factor."

The survey also asked prisoners their age, when they started drug use
and how long they had been using.

Median age for starting drug use was 17, while 16 represented the
average number of years using drugs.

"The least number of years using drugs was one while the highest
number of years using drugs was 50," the report stated.

"These numbers expose the seriousness of the drug epidemic in Bermuda
and the serious difficulty we have in arresting the problem."

No adjustments were made to the data because it was found that the
sample population studied closely reflected Bermuda's overall
demographics, Mr. Crockwell said.

The report describes the educational profile of the inmates as
"troubling" - more than half of all inmates have no academic
qualifications, about 21 percent have a school leaving certificate and
less than four percent have a technical or vocational certificate, it
found.

Only 34.7 percent were serving a sentence for the first time, while
nearly two thirds had been in prison before. And among adult males the
recidivism rate was found to be 70 percent

"Recidivism rates tend to fluctuate quite often and these figures are
lower than recent reports from Government but are still unacceptable
for a jurisdiction the size of Bermuda."

More than half of the prisoners surveyed (52 percent) said they had
been in prison between two and four times before, while more than 25
percent had been there between five and seven times.

Close to 20 percent had been in prison at least eight times and the
average number of visits to prison was five.

Of the frequent visitors, 61 percent said they used drugs, legal and
illegal, "while engaged in previous criminal activity" and 42 percent
said they were on drugs while committing the crime. "This is a clear
indication that one of the dominant factors for a person to re-offend
is drug dependency," the report said.

While most re-offenders (68 percent) had been able to find jobs on the
outside about one third could not. And only 71 percent of those that
did get jobs worked on a full-time basis.

"It is important to note that the bulk of these jobs did not require
any skills and consequently did not pay high wages," according to the
report.

"Although inmates were able to find full-time employment the fact that
they returned to crime over and over may be indicative of the
inability to survive in Bermuda with little or no skills."

The family and personal background profile of the prison population
mirror that of the general population with 26 percent coming from two
parent headed households.

But 304 children in Bermuda are living in one parent households
because the other parent is in prison. For more than 86 percent of
those children the parent in prison is the father.

About 12 percent of the total prison population reported being
sexually abused.

Broken down by gender, the proportion of males and females reporting
abuse was equal at 13 percent. About 70 percent of those reporting
sexual abuse said it happened more than once and almost all of them
said it happened while they were children and that they knew their
perpetrator.

Still, most inmates (73 percent) reported that they had a positive
outlook on life, according to the study.

"This suggests that the average attitude of an inmate when released is
receptive to living a constructive lifestyle but due to lack of
support, whether in housing, employment, or drug treatment, they have
difficulty maintaining a law abiding existence."

Work Inc., which provides services for former prisoners, commissioned
the study to see how it could better tailor its programs to meet the
needs of its clients and to establish benchmark data on the progress
of the penal system. It also hoped to have a better understanding of
the factors that lead to criminal behaviour.

Mr. Crockwell expects to meet with Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister
shortly to discuss the findings. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake