The Prison department is being mismanaged, charged the Opposition United Bermuda Party yesterday.

The allegation came during discussion of Government?s request for approval of $28 million in extra spending last year.

While much of the spending was related to Hurricane Fabian and arbitrated pay settlements, the prison service cost taxpayers an extra $740,600 in overtime and sick leave, Government told legislators. Acting Labour Ministerinformed the House that some 848 man days were lost to sick leave, and vacation leave gobbled up 3,049 man days.

He explained that much of the overtime was a result of 15 vacancies in the service for a period of eight months.

The figures prompted a blistering attack by Opposition Home Affairs spokesman . ?That place is not managed properly,? he said. ?You?ve got people stressed to death and we are paying for it,? he said.

?We are paying for it in terms of dollars and we are paying for it in terms of their health.?

He added that service to the inmates must be suffering too.

?It is because the prison is not properly managed.?

Mr. Burgess added: ?Get the amount of staff we need and pray with me that they will get somebody to manage that prison properly.?

He was joined by UBP Leader who said that the extra money being spent was a ?symptom of the underlying sickness of the management of the system.?

Prison Commissioner John Prescod sat stoically in the chamber with other civil servants, as Dr. Gibbons demanded that Government ?get a handle on it.?weighed in with her criticism that with thousands more dollars being spent on food the prison population must be rising which meant that Government?s Alternative to Incarceration programme was not working.

?If ATI had been working we would have been seeing a decrease in the cost of food, a decrease in the number of prisoners,? she said.

Former Home Affairs Minister attempted a defence saying the vacancies had occurred over the last two years as a result of ?natural attrition.?

? You would have a ?natural? program to take care of it. You don?t find yourself in this position,? Mr. Burgess shot back.

?You can start looking for 36 people every year until you correct what is happening in the prison system. You could look for 100... Get the prison cleaned up.?

Prison officers asked to fill in for staff shortages could have been offered time in lieu of payment, he said, or offered early retirement.

?When did they decide that the men would have to be paid? If they started off wanting to be paid, Government would have had to budget. If they didn?t know somebody dropped the ball somewhere.?

Mr. Burgess also suggested that Government sue people who are found by the courts to be helping foreign drug mules or employing foreigners who enter the country illegally.

He said Government could recoup money spent on deportation the lawbreakers with lawsuits.

?We should be suing the locals involved. Once it?s proven that the cocaine was purchased in cahoots with Burgess he should go to court and be sued in the courts,? he said. ?It might help dissuade the drug dealers. We should try to recoup as much as we can... Employers are no exception.?