PRISON Fellowship Bermuda (PFB) is aiming to start a revolutionary new programme aimed at slashing recidivism rates ? but it needs an initial $190,000 from the private sector to make it happen.

And if the New Road Rehabilitation Programme gets off the ground next year as planned, it will be something of a global pilot scheme.

More than 80 per cent of Bermuda's prison inmates return to crime after their release and the New Road scheme focuses on helping them find a place in society to avoid the vicious circle of recidivism.

The programme was designed by PFB chairman Jack Harris, who worked on ideas taken from an international conference held in Bermuda in 1998 entitiled "Crime and its effect on our community".

"If this programme was to make a difference, then the financial implications could be absolutely huge," Mr. Harris said.

"We expect to reduce recidivism rates by one third. At the moment 80 per cent of inmates in Bermuda return to prison.

"It costs a good $50,000 to keep an inmate in prison for a year and then there are legal and court costs as well. So incarceration costs the island millions of dollars.

"The last time I checked, we spent 12 per cent of our national budget on crime. In the US, incarceration is bankrupting states."

There are five aspects to the programme, which are:

Profiling inmates for workplace success.

The support yourself work programme.

The employer / inmate workplace mentoring programme.

The inmates' assistance counselling programme.

A resttlement office.

Mr. Harris, a business consultant who has worked voluntarily on the programme, said he was approaching the private sector for pilot scheme funds as the Government would need statistical proof that it worked before it could be publicly funded.

PFB chairman of fund-raising Glen Philips will spearhead the campaign to raise $190,000, the estimated amount needed to draft the finished project manual, plus administration and start-up costs, and to complete the pilot over one year with ten inmates.

Each letter to potential donors will include a memorandum from Ronald Nikkel, the president of Prison Fellow International, which spells out the message that the world is watching.

"Fund-raising is now in process to create a complete pilot within Bermuda than can be reviewed by PFI for possible replication around the world," Mr. Nikkel wrote.

"I feel this represents a unique opportunity for one of the world's smaller countries to contribute very significantly in responding to one of the world's greatest problems, the overall effect of crime on our communities."

The project also has the support of Commissioner of Corrections John Prescod.

Mr. Harris said the aim was to tackle the root causes of what made people commit crime, rather than just to inflict punishment by imprisonment.

"So much money is spent on incarceration and not so much on rehabilitation," Mr. Harris said.

"On average, about 12 per cent of inmates have committed crimes against people. Those who have committed crimes against property don't need to be in prison, they need to change their value systems.

"People go to prison because of inequity. When they are stuck in prison, it proves to them, in their minds, that society is beating up on them.

"The New Road Programme teaches the inmate to succeed ? then he has to decide whether he wants to be successful. It is a different approach."

Mr. Harris was hopeful that local companies would offer their support to a programme, designed in Bermuda, that could go global.

And he added: "If this is adopted around the world, it could become known as the Bermuda Programme ? and that would be better than winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games."