one-time resident says.

And Mr. Curtis Gray called on Government to improve the training school or "get rid of the entire ineffective scheme''.

In a Letter to the Editor, the 20-year-old Mr. Gray said the abolition of the training school would in no way be a step backwards for Bermuda because the system, which is suppose to help young people who have gone astray to become productive citizens, simply is not working.

He gave a list of inefficiencies at the co-ed St. George's facility.

"Other than a music class and an art class, the only classes offered trainees (youths serving a sentence of corrective training) is a G.E.D. (General Education Diploma) class and a remedial maths class,'' Mr. Gray said.

"Once the high school diploma is earned, there are no other classes offered to help these kids to further themselves.'' He said he knew of at least one trainee who attended no classes because he already had a high school education.

While noting a sentence of corrective training could run from nine months to three years, Mr. Gray said due to "the way things are done internally'' it is impossible for a male resident to be released in less than 13 months.

"Why send these boys to this facility and lead them to believe that they can work for their release in nine months when it is untrue?'' he asked.

Mr. Gray, who is studying to become an English teacher, said trainees also did not have access to a rule book for the facility.

Despite requesting to have one, he said he never saw a rule book during his two-year stay at the training school.

And he said: "I saw old rules change constantly and new rules miraculously seemed to pop up -- all depending on the officers working''.

He also said the training school should not be run by prison officers.

"I was constantly made to feel like an inmate in a prison rather than a trainee in a training school,'' Mr. Gray said.

"This is simply because prison officers, through no fault of their own, have developed a `prison mentality' while working in this field, and cannot help but to do what they are trained to do.

Mr. Gray said prison officers are paid to "babysit'' and do not serve as counsellors, social workers or psychologists.

"The majority of youths that find themselves in this predicament need someone to talk to and understand them,'' he said. "Without this, the Co-ed facility can best be described as a `breeding ground for criminals'.'' He once heard an officer tell a trainee he will never be "anything more than a common thief'', Mr. Gray said.

He also recalled a trainee was locked in his room for two days after refusing to clean up the vomit of another trainee.

And, Mr. Gray said, he heard officers place bets on how long it would take a released trainee to return.

However, Mr. Gray said he was able to turn his life around and further his education after his time at the training school.

"But I am not the norm,'' he said. "Only after I chose within myself to make a change did I do that and I had to make that change by myself and for myself.'' Mr. Gray said: "It must be known that the majority of boys that are sent to the Co-Educational facility end up at Casemates because the system has failed them''.