Experts from the UK are to be brought to the Island to help set up short-term drug treatment programmes for offenders ? after a scheme run by a Bermudian was axed.

Kuni Frith-Black, of Paget, ran the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme (ASAP) at Westgate for four-and-a-half years. But her contract was terminated on August 13.

The Department of Corrections is now planning to launch a new long-term drug treatment programme next month led by a seconded member of staff from the Government?s Family Services team.

And British drug counsellors are to be brought to Bermuda to train staff to run programmes for short-term prisoners. Bryan Payling, Acting Commissioner of Corrections, told he did not want to go into detail about why Ms Frith-Black?s contract was ended.

?We are talking about an individual. It?s one person who ran a programme and a decision was made by Mr. (Hubert) Dean (former Commissioner of Corrections) some while ago not to continue the programme.?

But Ms Frith-Black claimed he had said publicly that her programme was too expensive.

?What?s expensive: my programme or bringing in people from outside the country?? she asked. ?I?m not ex-pat bashing but it seems to be across the board in Government that they do this.?

Mr. Payling said the Department of Corrections was about to finalise details of a new long-term substance abuse programme and was looking at options to help remanded prisoners or those serving short sentences.

?We are looking at working together with Court Services to bring in some short duration programmes,? he said. ?I have had positive indication from the UK that people are willing to come out and train our staff.

?I?ll continue the dialogue with my former colleagues in the UK and we?ll also be looking to see if there is anything in Canada.?

Ms Frith-Black?s programme combined alternative approaches to substance abuse ? such as auricular acupuncture and herbal detoxification ? with traditional methods used by organisations such as Narcotics Anonymous.

She set it up after being approached by the prison while she worked for Focus Counselling Services and ran it with a recovering client Randy Leverock, also a Bermudian.

She said the Ministry of Home Affairs informed her a year ago that her contract would run out in August this year. ?I had been told several reasons,? she said. ?A few of the several reasons was that the programme was not accredited and I did not have my international certification. ?They wanted a more traditional programme that did not incorporate alternative approaches because that was very controversial. Basically, those were the three reasons.?

She added: ?I was disappointed from the standpoint that I had built a relationship with the guys and many of them there have known me for years. I have been in the field for nine years.

?But I have not got an axe to grind with the Government. I?m not going to stop assisting. There are a number of ways that I?m looking into doing it.?

Ms Frith-Black is about to complete a course which will make her a certified naturopath. She then hopes to treat former prisoners on their release from jail. She claimed that in Bermuda there was a lot of fear regarding alternative treatment. ?I don?t understand why it?s so controversial here. But the programme had its share of controversial episodes.?

Mr. Payling said: ?It?s not about whether the form is traditional. We are looking at running formally accredited programmes.? He said the programmes could include alternative treatments such as auricular acupuncture but that the Department wanted them to be recognised schemes run by qualified counsellors.

?Despite staffing shortages vital programmes to help offenders change their ways will continue says Mr. Payling.

The Corrections Department has had difficulties in recruiting more psychologists so the plan is to focus the attention of the prison's only psychologist on running a sex offenders treatment programme.

And Mr. Payling is in the process of securing someone to continue a violent offenders programme. Public fears about sex offenders not getting treatment programmes did not tell the whole story, said Mr. Payling.

He said: ?We recognise the concern but we only have two offenders being released this year, the remainder of the sex offender base is being released between 2007 and 2018.?

He said programmes weren't mandatory and forcing unwilling participants into a class would only disrupt those wanting to reform.

?Sex offenders at the most series end of the spectrum are some of the most intractable offenders. There's a high level of denial.

?It takes a lot to break down ? often it's not broken down at all.

?In my experience a lot of sex offenders are completely unmoved by a legitimate and lawful approach to encourage them to change their behaviour. It doesn't mean to say you give up.

?But what you can't do with people like that if they are not prepared to change their behaviour is put them against their will with people trying to change.?