Bermuda has the world?s second highest per capita prison population according to the latest statistics.

And Prisons boss Hubert Dean fears it could rise further if Government pushes ahead with plans to double some sentences for drugs offences.

Bermuda?s moved from ninth spot to just behind America in its fondness for locking up criminals.

In the last study Bermuda locked up 447 citizens per 100,000 ? but it has now leapt to 532, leapfrogging the Cayman Islands in the process.

Bermuda occupies joint second spot with Belarus and Russia although the Bermuda figures the study used are from November 2003.

Mr. Dean said he wasn?t surprised by the report by the International Centre for Prison Studies from King?s College, London.

He told : ?Bermuda has always had one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. We tend to be very punitive in meting out sentences.

?Unfortunately the alternatives have not really kicked in or benefited us in any way.?

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Bermuda?s prisons are now at 85 percent capacity with 338 people ? including 64 foreigners ? spread over four locations.

The figure differs from the 532 quoted in the report because it is pro rated because Bermuda has a population smaller than 100,000.

Mr. Dean said Government?s plans for longer jail terms could put further pressure on a stretched system.

Last month Government announced plans to change the Misuse of Drugs Act to increase magistrates? sentencing powers from five to ten years imprisonment.

Unpaid fines will bring in a consecutive period of imprisonment until the fine is paid and hard drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin will have a mandatory 50 percent increase in prison sentences.

Mr. Dean said: ?If prisoners serve longer periods of incarceration it will impact on overcrowding.?

He said he knew Government was still committed to alternatives to incarceration programme.

?We need to start using this right now. We don?t seem to be using too many alternatives.?

He said the prison service was looking at getting a prefab building, possibly to house work release prisoners.

That would help cut down on drugs being brought into the prison said Mr. Dean who said reopening Casemates to take the overspill was not a viable alternative because it was in such a state of disrepair after being left to rot for ten years by Works and Engineering.

He said there were trees growing in the building while the wood structure had deteriorated and there was still asbestos on the site.

?I don?t think Casemates will be reopened, I know if you polled Bermudians they would say re-open it.?

Attorney General Larry Mussenden said he was unaware of the latest statistics but he said Government?s policy of Alternatives to Incarceration was working.

?It requires a multi-faceted approach,? he said.

?It also requires the development of the prisoner which in some cases requires years of counselling and programmes. It also requires change in the philosophy of our criminal justice system.

?We have turned the corner on this and we are seeing positive results in people who are being steered away from imprisonment and in those being released back into the community after imprisonment.?

Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz said there was a growing culture of lawlessness.

?We have a high prison population because we have a lot of criminals,? he said.

?I am very concerned about it and I think we should all be concerned.?

He believes there is a high correlation between out of wedlock children and crime.

?There is no simple answer,? said Mr. Moniz. ?It takes two parents to raise a child. It takes a lot of effort. People need to look a little bit closer to home.?

This was backed up with anecdotal evidence from Mr. Dean who said he had taken poll of prisoners in the 1980s and found 89 percent had come from single parent homes.

He said: ?Single parents do two or three jobs so nobody is watching the kids, they are just left to their own devices.

?I am sure you would find similar figures today.?

Mr. Moniz said he believed other factors led to Bermuda?s descent into crime.