Prison Commissioner John Prescod will be meeting with Premier Alex Scott in the next few days to discuss the way forward for the service, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Under-fire Mr. Prescod was placed under strict Government supervision and was forced to carry out quarterly progress meetings with then Premier Jennifer Smith as part of the terms that helped end May's prison officers' strike.

With the recent election and the subsequent change of Premier, it has been impossible for these meetings to actually take place, but now Mr. Scott has returned from Edinburgh, at least an initial meeting is expected to be held.

"I will be meeting with the Premier soon," Mr. Prescod told The Royal Gazette.

"But it would be wrong of me to say anything more at this moment."

Although he did reveal that he had a meeting with the Prison Officers' Association which he described as "very positive indeed".

And Mr. Scott revealed he was looking forward to the first official meeting between the two men since taking the reins of Government.

"The original meeting was postponed to allow the prison officers to meet their new Minister," said Mr. Scott last night, who arrived back from Scotland this week.

"I will be meeting with the Commissioner very shortly and look forward to establishing the same rhythm of meetings that the previous Premier intended.

"I think that is the best way forward."

Prison officers voted to end their strike in May after hammering out a deal which saw the unpopular Mr. Prescod placed under strict Government supervision.

Officers had been campaigning for better appraisal, training, succession planning, career planing, consultation and communication and such was the the strength of their feeling on the matter that for three days they even defied an injunction forbidding them to strike.

Prison officers took the industrial action in an attempt to oust Mr. Prescod, whom they accused of being autocratic and failing to implement most of the recommendations of a 2001 board of inquiry.

But the settlement meant Mr. Prescod was forced to carry out every clause with the Premier hosting quarterly progress meetings while the controversial appointment of Canadian consultant Dr. Morais Wallen for training was not made.

It has been a rocky time for Mr. Prescod in Bermuda, although he is no stranger to controversy.

Credited with slashing recidivism rates in Jamaica's prisons, Mr. Prescod also had to battle prison officer walkouts, riots and officer on inmate violence during his eight year tenure at the helm of Jamaica's prison system.

In 1997, prisoners rioted over his plan to offer condoms inside Jamaica's prisons to officers and inmates to fight AIDS. Sixteen homosexual inmates were killed and prison officers walked off the job and were replaced by soldiers.

And in June 2000, 300 inmates were allegedly beaten by Prison officers at St. Catherine's prison. It is understood that while some officers were transferred, none were disciplined.

Hundreds of prison officers walked off again in 2000 in protest at Mr. Prescod's reappointment as head of Jamaica's Department of Corrections.