Prison numbers are not falling despite Government's Alternatives to Incarceration policy, says Home Affairs and Public Safety Minister Terry Lister.

He said violent crime among young people was a big factor and said community beat officers were the key to stopping the rot.

The ATI policy has led to the setting up of a drug court where addicted offenders get suspended sentences in return for submitting to rehab.

He said drug court had worked well.

"Sentencing people to prison for petty drugs is almost eliminated now, however when you sentence someone to prison for a significant crime, that person occupies a cell for a significant period of time."

He said drug mules were still rightly getting long sentences.

"We also have a very serious issue with violence amongst young people," he said. "I can't express the level of concern we have over this and the frustration we feel because of things we attempted to do which are good have only resulted in displacement of the violence.

"We just move them from one place to another."

He said there were lots of fights in night clubs during the last two summers but cameras and security guards and ID checks had been set up.

"Now there are hardly any fights in night clubs. Great. But there's the same number of fights in total out in the street.

"We have to get to these people to figure out how we can stop the violence. The Police can only arrest and the incarceration system can only hold them."

"Our incarceration numbers are very, very similar to two to three years ago. In the prison system there are 333 people - the type of number we have had all along.

"The make up has changed with far more long-termers with drugs and other things. And also too many young men for violence.

"Every Monday I look out of my office window and see a bunch of young men in orange outfits all there for violence or drugs over the weekend.

"Drug court can't help us when we have a fellow who beat up someone outside of a night club or stabbed them."

Mr. Lister said he was putting faith in the community beat officers to tackle the problem.

He told The Royal Gazette: "They have to get in amongst the community, identify problems and work with the community and social services to figure out how we can help this group of young men.

"We need to get this group to function in society and get on with their lives without making the newspaper on any regular basis?"

He said the CBOs were different from parish constables who kept tabs on the bad guys and arrested them quickly.

"The CBO's approach is different. They try to work with the community to rebuild that area. They don't just make arrests.

"I always say if you have 20 young men being a pain in the neck, two or three of them are really criminals and they will go to jail time and again, no doubt about it.

"The old approach would have seen us going after the 20. I am not for that any more. They need someone to talk to them and sort them out and get them back on track.

"That's what the CBOs are attempting to do."

Mr. Lister said the community service order side of ATI hasn't really got up and running because the positions put in the budget remain unfilled.

But he explained the drug court initiative wasn't a soft option.

He said: "If someone broke the law on drugs and was sentenced to jail at the end of their three months their time and debt to society is finished. If they choose to go to the drug court it's a whole two years before they finally finish."

"In order to finish they have to remain relatively drug free. To graduate they have held a job, and haven't committed a crime."

Asked about the number of drug court attendees who were still on drugs Mr. Lister said curing people with addictions was a tall order - as could be seen by the number of smokers.