Bermuda doesn?t often get compared to a communist regime but remand prisoner Andrew Hall could have a point.

He?s been locked up for nearly three years without trial, spending 22 hours a day in a tiny cell ? in spite of the fact a Supreme Court judge has ruled his constitutional rights have been breached.

Hall, a Jamaican who has lived in America for more than 15 years, expected better of Bermuda.

He denies charges of importing $1.8 million of heroin in March 2001 with two others.

His co-accused, Jamaican Barris Dawkins, also known as Rudolph Everton Pusey, 46, was locked up for 18 years when he pleaded guilty to importing the drugs.

And fellow Jamaican, Teartia Smith, 38, a nurse, was jailed for 14 years when she admitted smuggling drugs in her underwear.

But Hall, who according to his lawyer Mark Diel has never been responsible for a single adjournment, is still waiting for his day in court.

It was finally put down for January 19 ? two years and ten months after his arrest ? but an appeal, this time from his lawyer, could delay this as he seeks to have the whole case thrown out over the delays.

Hall is hopeful he will finally escape the grim realities of life on remand spent mostly locked up in his own cell which he says measures seven feet by eleven feet.

He told It?s very difficult to be locked up most of the time.

?It?s a mental struggle, you are grasping for survival, you are going insane being locked up 22 hours a day, it?s mental torture.

?You have to be mentally strong to survive. The food is terrible, everything is terrible.?

He said meals were mostly cereal and bread.

?There?s no nutritional value, what can you get from it? We get fruit once a week and chicken once a week, that?s it.

?You can?t demand what you want. You eat what they give you or you do without. It?s basic food to keep you alive.?

However Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Robert Horton said meals were designed to be nutritionally balanced and faxed a planned menu covering three weeks which backed this up. Meat or fish and vegetables featured every day while there was also a vegetarian option.

Mr. Horton also said remand inmates were allowed out of their cells for three hours a day including one hour in the fresh air in the morning.

Hall said his health is deteriorating because of his spell in prison.

He said: ?Definitely you change, you get weaker. The joints are the first thing to go, when you break down mentally you break down physically.?

Remand prisoners are not allowed to go on work programmes and leisure opportunities are limited on the two hours they are allowed out of their cells.

He said there were no drugs in the remand wing but there were other dangers.

?Everybody has their own problems, it?s a clash of personalities, it?s OK as long as you keep out of it and stay away from the negativeness.

?We are locked up 22 hours a day. It used to be 23 hours but it changed a couple of months ago.

?It?s inhumane but I can?t do anything about it. I don?t know the reason why we are locked up.

?They let you out in the morning and in the afternoon, you play cards, dominoes or watch TV.

?I am nervous, I can?t sleep, I am hanging on the brink. I just doze. I can?t remember the last time I was able to sleep properly. It?s like you are in a permanent dream state.

?I have never been locked up before. I am on the pathway to insanity right now. I put in to see the psychiatrist the other day but I am having second thoughts. I feel if I get close I will just shout at him.?

Entertainment includes TV on the two hour-long breaks in the morning and afternoon and any novels lying around in the unit.

?The books here aren?t anything you can gain knowledge from, they are just ordinary novels.

?You have to do what exercise you can in the cell, that?s about it.?

But he said he was so mentally distracted it was difficult to maintain a physical regime.

?You have to make yourself, its very difficult. You worry about your family. It?s tearing them apart. You are only allowed three long distance calls a week, it?s very difficult.?

The 39-year-old Jamaican has been an American resident for more than 15 years but US authorities here were unaware of Hall and his case when contacted by

His mother has twice made the trip to see him. But his wife is not able to come because of circumstances he doesn?t want to divulge while his 18-year-old daughter has found her father?s plight a distraction from her college course.

?I last saw my wife three years ago. They are taking it very badly. They were very hopeful because I told them I was coming home. I thought I was going to be released. Nothing?s worked out so far.?

Those hopes were dashed when last month Assistant Justice Philip Storr ruled that Hall?s constitutional rights had been breached because he did not get an early hearing but he refused to throw out the case.

?I am surprised Bermuda would have me in remand for three years. It?s inconceivable to think what these people are doing and getting away with it. It?s almost like they are practising communism here. That?s the mentality I am getting, that it?s a dictatorship.

?I am hoping the US authorities get involved at this point but I am not sure what can be done. I would hope they do something. It?s terrible, no one should have to go through this. It certainly would not happen in Canada or the US.

?The Constitution is the whole system. If judges don?t abide by the Constitution then the whole system is in chaos.

?You never know, something can happen to anyone and if constitutional rights can?t protect you from certain things you have no voice, you are lost.?

But Mr. Justice Storr said public opinion in Bermuda would be ?outraged? if Hall did not stand trial ? particularly because his two co-accused had received lengthy sentences.

Hall?s lawyer Mark Diel is launching an appeal against Mr. Justice Storr?s verbal judgment but he is irritated that he is still waiting for a written judgment, more than two weeks later.

He said: ?I have written to get a copy but the judge said in open court the Solicitor General and I were supposed to get together and more or less do a draft judgment for him. I was rather surprised by that request.

?It?s going to be very difficult for myself and the Solicitor General to agree on a draft.?

Mr. Diel said the judge had refuted his argument that a previous legal case was binding but had refused him the chance to argue this point.

?There is a delicious irony that here we were in a constitutional hearing and we were not given the opportunity of a fair hearing. You are supposed to have certain constitutional rights.?

He said he believed the Solicitor General had fought the appeal because there were probably many others who, although not in custody, had cases hanging around for three years.

Mr. Justice Storr had ruled the judge in the forthcoming trial should decide on costs due to Hall because of the breach of his rights by keeping him locked up for so long.

However Mr. Diel said trial judges had jurisdiction on criminal matters, not civil, and if Hall was found guilty then the judge would hardly be generous in awarding damages.

Mr. Diel said the judge did not release Hall because he thought because the other two had been guilty then Hall was reasonably suspected of committing a criminal offence.

?So much for the presumption of innocence until proven guilty,? said Mr. Diel.

?The simple argument that he would not be here if he wasn?t guilty is singularly unattractive.?

And he said this did not justify not bailing Hall. The Crown has argued that Hall had twice been offered bail, and it had been reduced once to try to accommodate him, but he had been unable to raise a surety.

Mr. Diel said he would push ahead with the appeal. He said: ?There is no way this is going to trial on January 19.?

He said he would also be appealing on the issue uncorroborated evidence being allowed to convict people.

?He should have been spending Christmas with his wife.?