New prisons boss Bryan Payling is to boost intelligence gathering and analysis to help keep tabs on Bermuda's growing gang problem.

He said a security committee had been recently set up to review intelligence.

And the security chief officer will be sent to the UK in October to spend a couple of weeks in two prisons ? one of which has been in the forefront of developing intelligence gathering and sharing on gang-related issues.

Mr. Payling, the Acting Commissioner of Corrections, said: "I am aiming she should observe so she can bring back what she's learned and apply it in the Bermudian situation where appropriate." Prisons needed to co-operate with Police and make the most of information they gathered as it could pay off later, said Mr. Payling.

"It comes from what prisoners say, who they mix with, who visits them. A lot boils down to staff observation, them reporting it back and it being collated."

Mr. Payling was the Governor of Brinsford young offenders institution in the English West Midlands ten years ago when the gang issue began to bubble. "We were ahead of Police ? when gang members were outside they managed themselves covertly.

"When they were in prison they were less covert about letting their affiliations be known.Because they were all 18 and 19 we had no reason to take it particularly seriously because gang issues were not predominant. But a few years later those people were out on the streets of Birmingham with guns, fighting over territory, fighting over drugs, drive-by shootings.

"That establishment got involved with the Police because we were the focus of intelligence information that was around."

Gang affiliations are starting to become more obvious in Bermuda's prisons but violence is minimal.