“Success requires no apologies; failure permits no alibis” – Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich)

Let me first say that I do not condone the assault on a prison officer at Westgate last month, which has been reported in the media and confirmed by both the Department of Corrections and Prison Officers Association president Timothy Seon. While unfortunate, one thing that has been highlighted — albeit unintentionally — in the aftermath of that incident is a failure in leadership within the department. While the list of issues in the prison system is vast, I’ll only highlight a few relevant ones.

Training and hiring

In a recent interview with The Royal Gazette, officer Seon— as he has consistently done— highlighted the staffing challenges facing the department. He mentions shortcuts in training as one of the “mitigating factors that created the perfect storm for this incident to happen”. But as a senior officer and divisional officer, who supervises all basic officers, such as the one who was assaulted, officer Seon had an opportunity to directly provide additional on-the-job training. But officer Seon has not regularly worked at Westgate for some time. As POA president, he bears some responsibility for the lack of training that new officers receive — they are his members.

One thing that officer Seon will not mention are the numerous complaints from inmates about officer misconduct. Now I am not alleging that the officer who was assaulted had any complaints against him or that the actions of those who assaulted him were justified. Far from it. But in an already challenging environment, officer misconduct or mistreatment of prisoners could act as a spark. It is why, in my opinion, interpersonal skills development and conflict resolution training are important for prison officers Because most of the job for officers on the watch involves interaction with prisoners.

While the department has a process for inmates to lodge complaints, it is not one that they handle with any urgency. The internal (Form 60) process to lodge a complaint can have an inmate’s matter languishing in limbo for six months or longer before resolution. And, it is not handled by an independent body — like policing matters with the Police Complaints Authority — which has eroded trust in the process. Yet infractions to prison rules are handled swiftly; with the Treatment of Offenders Board meting out punishments within 30 to 60 days of the violation having occurred.

Separately, the hiring practices, in recent years, highlights a systemic failure — one that the commissioner has had sufficient time to fix. The department has routinely failed to replenish its ranks by hiring smaller and smaller class sizes. When once the department hired upwards of 15 or more recruits at a time, the most recent class, and only new officers of 2025, was comprised of six individuals — with five being women. Now this left me a bit confused as the bulk of our island’s prison population reside in Westgate — an adult-male facility. Over the past few years, the population here hovers at around 120 men. Across all other facilities there are approximately another 50 individuals incarcerated. So the bulk of the need is, here, in the West and the department continues to hire a disproportionate number of female officers, who simply cannot do the same job as their male counterparts.

During incidents such as the one that recently happened, what expectation is there for a female officer to provide assistance — or a proportionate use of force? Why does the POA president sit by silently as the department’s administration continues to put females in such an environment that he alludes to as being dangerous? As I mentioned in a previous opinion, it is because, in general, incidents like this are outliers. While not acceptable, it also isn’t the norm, which is why you can have a pregnant officer continue to work in the housing units at Westgate right up until her maternity leave.

The truth is that most days, officers have little to do. Their days are largely incident-free. Which is why many of them have no issue working double shifts, collecting overtime that allows them to take home upwards of $15,000 per month. This overtime is what keeps officer Seon quiet as to the real problems facing our prison system. That and the ability for his members to abuse sick leave — a generous collectively bargained benefit — which is a chronic issue in the understaffing at Westgate. Officer Seon fails to seek accountability from his members in this regard.

Officer Seon’s public pleas for more officers are always framed from a security standpoint. But why isn’t he advocating as forcefully for more staff so that inmates can receive more education and work-release opportunities? This brings me to the next issue…

Education and social services

Section 3 of the Prison Rules 1980 states:

The purposes of the training […] of convicted prisoners shall be to establish in them the will to lead a good and useful life on discharge from prison, and to fit them to do so.

While section 57 states:

(1) Arrangements shall be made for programmes of educational classes, and reasonable facilities, under such conditions as the commissioner may determine, to enable prisoners who wish in their leisure time to improve their education by correspondence courses or private study, or to practice handicrafts.

(2) Special attention shall be paid to the education of illiterate prisoners, if necessary within the hours normally allotted to work.

(3) Every prisoner who is able to profit by the education facilities provided shall be encouraged to do so.

At present, these two sections fall under the remit of Acting Director of Education and Education Officer. They are the sole gatekeepers to an inmate’s educational and vocational pursuits and they, too often, act as barriers to progress instead of support resources. They consistently fail to engage with the resident population in any meaningful way.

Scrutiny also needs to be placed on those responsible for providing assistance to prisoners transitioning out of our corrections facilities. This should include assisting them in finding employment or housing, if necessary, as well as any post-incarceration support services. This is an area where the department, of late, routinely falls short. Men are being discharged from Westgate without employment prospects and, in some cases, with no place to stay — and without even as much as a bus ticket. And yes, this is a consequence of one’s criminal past. But is this the best we can do? Is this the best we want to do?

The department is also responsible for assisting inmates in maintaining family relationships. Section 60 of the Prison Rules 1980 clearly outlines the department’s responsibility in doing this.

(1) Special attention shall be paid to the maintenance of such relations between a prisoner and his family as are desirable in the best interests of both.

(2) So far as is practicable, and in the opinion of the commissioner and of the board desirable, a prisoner shall be encouraged and assisted to maintain or establish such relations with persons or societies outside the prison as may promote the best interests of the prisoner’s family or the social rehabilitation of the prisoner.

Outside of the annual Father’s Day and Christmas events for the men in our prisons and their children, it is hard to see how the department broadly and uniformly assist the incarcerated in maintaining relationships with our families — especially those with children.

Senior Management

This brings me to the Commissioner of Corrections, Ms Keeva Joell-Benjamin. Under her leadership, I believe there has been a rapid decay in the operations of Westgate and in inmate and staff morale. But I will be fair to her by acknowledging that some of the issues predate her tenure as the island’s top warder.

2025 ended with the commissioner being on unspecified leave for three or four months. Yet it would be hard to find a prisoner or prison officer who could tell you what impact her lengthy absence had made. Because even when she’s working, she’s hardly ever seen.

Section 25 of the Prison Rules 1980 states:

(1) The commissioner shall exercise close and constant personal supervision of the whole of each prison.

(2) The commissioner shall visit and inspect daily all parts of a prison where prisoners are working or accommodated, and shall give special attention to every prisoner who is ill or is suffering from any injury.

While it would be impractical for the commissioner to do this daily (at each facility), I believe the spirit of the law speaks to the post-holder having their pulse on the facilities under their remit and the persons in their care. But this isn’t possible when you’ve delegated these responsibilities to your assistant commissioners who have delegated it further down the ladder and so on.

Most of the population have had no interaction with the commissioner or her proxies, newly promoted assistant commissioners Darynda Caisey-Brown and Gladwin Simons, despite the law stating in Section 12 that, every prisoner shall, as soon as possible after his reception in prison or, as the case may be, his recall to prison, be interviewed separately by the commissioner. Many new prisoners don’t even know who the department’s senior leadership is. This goes to a larger issue in the system. As officers rise through the ranks, they become less involved in the lives of the people in their care and delegate that responsibility to subordinates who lack the authority to make any meaningful impact.

Additionally, the department’s promotion and succession planning practices should be reviewed. The promotions of Ms Caisey-Brown and Mr Simons were long-overdue as the posts of assistant commissioners had been vacant for some time due to retirements. But what the department won’t reveal is that the two who were promoted were the only two candidates available to choose from. How do you ensure that you have the best people for the job when you consistently promote the only ones available? I ask that with no malice as I have much respect for Ms Caisey-Brown and Mr Simons and believe that both are capable — I’m only stating a fact.

When was the last time you’ve seen a job advertisement for a post other than basic officer within the Department of Corrections? In other government departments, hiring can be done at almost all levels — and with candidates from outside of government. But not at DOC. The only way to go up is to start at the bottom.

With physical and mental fitness, character, and a high-school-equivalent education the main criteria for hiring, you eventually have persons rise through the ranks, making life-altering decisions for persons when they themselves don’t have the requisite educational and work experience to do so. Most administrators within the department have only learned how to be managers by the examples before them. And considering the depths to which the department has fallen, I’d say that this process needs to be looked at.

In recent years, the prison service has seen a number of departures of officers who have quit before reaching retirement age. Officer Seon doesn’t talk about this. What are their exit interviews — if any were conducted — telling the department and ministry about the reasons for attrition within the service? Because I doubt it's related to compensation. How much of the staffing problems can be tied to poor facility conditions, organisational culture and leadership?

I believe that recent changes to the Public Service Superannuation Fund will see the accelerated departure of officers. It is believed that next month will see the retirement of one of the newly promoted assistant commissioners. Such exits are devastating for a department already suffering from a paralysis due to the constant shuffling of officers in acting roles. Programmes cannot be put in place because senior officers do not hold a post long enough to develop and implement them. This leaves the inmate population with few resources for personal and professional advancement.

Conclusion

It is said that a fish rots from the head. Even though Ms Joell-Benjamin didn’t create many of the problems in the department or its current culture, she is now responsible for them and I’d find it hard for anyone to give her a passing grade for the job she’s done.

To officer Seon, I’d welcome him to also use his voice to advocate for solutions to the daily problems that prisoners face. To push for more work, education, and vocational opportunities — things that are proven in improving safety in prisons all over the world. The more opportunities that are created for prisoners to engage in meaningful and constructive pursuits, the less likely it will be that incidents such as what happened recently will occur. And it will also help to produce better citizens who are, at some point, re-entering society. Do not forget that part of your job, officer Seon.

The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Kim Wilkerson, has stated that she anticipates receiving the findings of the International Detention Standards Review — conducted in October — shortly. What I ask of the taxpayer is to demand that these findings be made public because this is not the first review of the island’s prison system in recent history. How many of the system’s current issues were highlighted in the Wheatly (2012) and Munns (2019) reports and not addressed? Perhaps none. But how would we know? How would you, the public — the people who fund the salaries and operational costs of Bermuda’s correctional system — know that your money is being utilised effectively in support of producing a better citizen after one’s term of incarceration?

The department has blocked efforts by inmates to submit Public Access to Information requests for these reports — in addition to blocking letters to the Governor and minister for other matters. And so, I am asking this publication and members of the public to submit requests for the reports that I have mentioned as well as the department’s education and vocational studies policies — and to publish them.

Only by holding those who are responsible for ensuring the island’s safety accountable, can we expect them to live up to the mission of this department: “to empower inmates to be responsible and productive citizens”. Throwing money and bodies at our prison system without accountability and a clear understanding of the system’s problems and their causes, will not yield better results.

• Behind The Walls is a resident of Westgate Correctional Facility