Ruling party backbencher Arthur Hodgson branded the Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) initiative a failure in the House of Assembly as Budget debates continued yesterday.

"The idea was a sound one but we failed to shift to the victims," the former Magistrate said. "It's not just a matter of keeping a person out of prison, it's a matter of ensuring that person compensates the victim. Even when we put people in prison they must work and their resources used to compensate the victims."

The comments came in the middle of what amounted to a lengthy lecture about the nature of the judicial system, politics and the country's core values.

His comments validated some of the concerns voiced by the Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) about reforming the justice system as they scrutinised the budget for the Legislative Affairs Ministry.

Mr. Hodgson noted that ATI was initially a UBP policy and criticised his own party for not making a "sufficiently radical departure" from UBP policies.

But he also lamented the adversarial nature of political debate and called on the UBP to admit to having perpetuated wrong policies and promise to correct them if given the opportunity.

"For example, ATI which we introduced and which I freely admit has failed (but) we only implemented what we have programmed... The Opposition should say we were wrongheaded when we planned it."

While Government was collecting just 25 percent of fines meted out by the courts, monies paid out to victims of crime had jumped significantly over the last two years, the Opposition noted.

Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister John Barritt noted that Government planned to spend $675,000 to compensate victims of crime, the same amount set aside in the last Budget and said that efforts should be made to find a way to make the perpetrators themselves pay their victims.

"Victims are entitled to claims," he said. "It's just a pity that it has to come out of the public purse."

Government is also increasing, by $10,000, the amount being spent on legal aid to just over a million dollars. Mr. Barritt said that lawyers were already complaining about the $100 an hour rate they get paid for legal aid cases and wanted it increased to $300 to be more in line with private sector work.

"We need to cut down on the amount of money we are paying to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and put something in place to make sure criminals pay to the victims... That has got to be part of the reform of the criminal justice system."

He suggested garnishing wages of prisoners while in prison.

In his remarks Mr. Hodgson backed that proposal, saying that prisoners should be allowed to work and part of their wages garnished to compensate their victims. The biblical scripture "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" made sense in terms of limiting punishment, he said.

"Is it important to take out two eyes from the fellow who took one of mine? Or is it important to have him compensate me for the eye he took?"

Mr. Hodgson then declared the Alternative to Incarceration a failure which he claimed had had no impact on the justice system.

"Our focus shifted to the perpetrator instead of remaining focused on the victim," he said. "The victim in so far as is possible should be compensated."

On legal aid, Mr. Hodgson said the fact that poor people have less access to the courts than the rich was a problem which had to be addressed.

He suggested a Government/and government funded office of public defenders, where lawyers would be on salaries and could take on cases without worrying about money.

But he said: "Those who complain about the (legal aid) fee they may receive are looking over their shoulder at the other lawyers," he said. "There's no point in them trying to go for the max, there primary purpose must be an interest in the law."

"I understand the love of the law," responded the UBP's Maxwell Burgess. "But I also understand a pay cheque gets my attention too. And those who don't love the law can get to love it if the price is right."

But the UBP also argued that Government resources appeared to be more focused on boosting defence capabilities than the Department of Public Prosecutions.