jail, have come under attack from the National Liberal Party.

And the Island's third political organisation has the backing of a research company which claims that the scheme "raises more questions than answers''.

Last night, NLP leader Charles Jeffers told The Royal Gazette that the rehabilitation programme -- in which offenders go on a rigorous exercise programme and are taught life skills -- was only a half step.

"It is our opinion that the UBP Government has become the master of half measures,'' he said.

"It seems obvious that the Government has no cohesive plan to deal with the problem of prisoners and potential prisoners in a comprehensive manner.

"What about a rehab programme for those already in prison? By the minister's own admission the prison system is producing a rate of recidivism that is unacceptable. Yet no mention is made of a halfway house that remains a long-standing unkept UBP promise.

"The NLP goes on record as giving wholehearted support to the concept of a rehabilitation programme instead of prison for certain offenders. But we cannot help but view the announcement made by the Hon. Maxwell Burgess as another election year appeasement effort.'' Valirie Akinstall, of the research company Akinstall International, has also blasted the Government for looking overseas to develop the programme without consulting local organisations.

And she argued that the proposal was another example of how women prisoners were being ignored by the authorities.

"Prison reform is imperative to social development and the community must be engaged in the process, if the process is to become successful,'' she said.

"The Minister certainly has not ventured into the community for solutions.

Public funds will be spent on a programme that is successful for Scotland but may not translate into success for Bermuda. The Minister has committed or will commit to a programme without the benefit of valuable research on prisoners -- certainly not female prisoners -- and without even considering Bermudian alternatives to the problem.

"The whole community seems to have forgotten about women in prison, not from the issue of who is in prison but whether or not women in prison have any hope of successful and or drug rehabilitation and the quality of life for their children.

"A first class site visit and a couple of weeks deliberations without the benefits of alternative plans or models from Bermuda -- so much for the Government's commitment to employment and opportunities to Bermudians.'' JAIL JAL