week, The Royal Gazette has learned.

The news came after Opposition Senator Alex Scott's claim yesterday a former Bermudian prisons commissioner is being hired to replace Mr. Milton Pringle who is retiring early from the post in August.

Speaking during the motion to adjourn in the Senate, Sen. Scott said prison officers were upset over the alleged appointment and the news was causing their moral to fall even further.

He said prison officers would not merely be satisfied the new commissioner is a Bermudian instead of someone "brought in from overseas'' -- as he claimed in the Senate earlier this year.

"They want someone from inside the prisons,'' he said.

Sen. Scott charged Government was "circumventing'' the normal promotional procedure of the prisons. He added the current deputy commissioner of prisons was more than qualified for the job.

Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness would not comment when contacted yesterday saying "politicians don't get involved in appointing people to posts''.

Mr. Malcolm Gregory, secretary to the Public Services Commission which is involved in making appointments to Government posts, said he had no information before him to confirm or deny Sen. Scott's claim.

However, he said he expects the new commissioner of prisons will be announced by the end of the week.

United Bermuda Party leader in the Senate and Information Services Minister the Hon. Mike Winfield said Government was interested in "ensuring the right Bermudian takes the position''.

He said Casemates Prison has the "challenge'' of not only moving from an inferior facility to a superior facility, but changing the "mode'' of the prisons system from incarceration to correction and hopefully improving the recidivism rate.

Mr. Pringle announced his early retirement following a series of blows to the reputation of the Island's prisons, including a steamy sex show put on by Prison Officers at their club, the escape of a convicted murderer from Casemates by bus and the killing of a tourist allegedly by a prisoner on a work-release programme.