Bermuda's new prisons boss will take charge of the Island's correctional system from today - amid ongoing controversy from his previous post as head of Jamaican jails.

As Prisons Commissioner John Prescod takes up his new post on the Island from Acting Commissioner Edwin Wilson this morning, hundreds of his former employees in Jamaica will be preparing to receive massive payouts totalling $9.5 million in backpay after being dismissed.

That amounts to 450 million Jamaican dollars.

When contacted last night, Mr. Wilson said Mr. Prescod would begin work today.

Mr. Wilson was seconded from a senior post in the Telecommunications Ministry.

More than 600 correctional officers will receive the cash for being dismissed after they walked off the job in 2000 in protest of Mr. Prescod's reappointment as head of the Department of Correctional Services.

The Associated Press reported that the mass sacking led to a two-year standoff, which only came to an end on Friday when Jamaican Security Minister Peter Phillips and administrators of the prison union representatives agreed to pay officers 85 percent of their lost salaries.

Mr. Phillips said the other 15 percent was withheld as a penalty for abandoning their jobs, and said the retroactive pay would be paid over two years.

A total of 800 employees at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre in Kingston and the St. Catherine District Prison in Spanish Town lost their jobs after they went on the three-day strike.

They said Mr. Prescod had done little to address problems that prisons were overcrowded, poorly staffed and workers were underpaid.

As a result of the strike action, the Government called in soldiers from the Jamaica Defence Force to staff the prisons. The soldiers are still working in the prisons today.

Lambert Brown, union vice-president said on Saturday that prison officers made J$23,000 per month currently, which is equivalent to $480 American dollars.

He said in June this year, the Government would determine a pay rise for prison staff and the salary settlement would be based on the wage increase.

And in April, Mr. Phillips announced the Government would reinstate more than 600 of the dismissed prison officers.

The remaining workers had either moved or chosen not to return to their jobs, prison officials said.

Mr. Phillips said many of the officers would be asked to return, but that officers aged over 50 would be given the option to retire.

Over 100 officers have been recommended for retirement based on poor disciplinary records, he said.

In March of this year, Labour and Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister announced that Mr. Prescod, 53, would take over the helm of Bermuda's prisons from May.

He said he hoped Mr. Prescod would slash the recidivism rates on the Island by 50 percent - just as he had done during his eight years heading up Jamaican jails.

Mr. Lister said Mr. Prescod had developed and implemented a strategy for rehabilitation in Jamaica - which fitted well with Bermuda's Alternatives to Incarceration programme.

However, Mr. Prescod's career in charge of Jamaica's correctional system was dogged by allegations of prison officer on inmate violence, riots, breakouts and walkouts by prison officers.

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 the prison officers walked off the job, leading to soldiers being brought in.

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.

Mr. Lister said of the Jamaican system under Mr. Prescod: "Significantly, the recidivism rate in that country is now just under 40 percent compared to the very alarming 85 percent that obtains in Bermuda."

And he said the new prisons boss was passionate about the parole board process, having served on the National Parole Board of Jamaica.

Mr. Lister was off the Island last night and so unavailable for comment.