horrifying facts -- and some good signs for the future.

Prison officers are concerned about overcrowding, which they say prevents them from doing much more other than locking up inmates, thus reducing opportunities for rehabilitation.

Overcrowding also means non-violent inmates, such as those who are in prison for non-payment of fines, or bad debts, are forced to share space with murderers and rapists.

Prison Officers Association spokesman Russ Ford makes the valid point that magistrates and judges are jailing people who cannot pay fines on the basis of one day in prison for every $10 owed. Yet the cost of keeping an inmate in prison is $100 per day. That is not a cost-effective solution.

Prisoners claim that prison officers, at the best of times, are interested in doing little more than turning the key on prisoners anyway. Prisoners also claim that drugs are as easy to get inside Westgate as they are on the street, and that some are being brought in by prison officers themselves. That is a disgrace.

What all of the above means is that Westgate is not performing the function it was designed for. One of the main reasons for closing Casemates and opening Westgate was to encourage rehabilitation and to reduce repeat offenders. If 70 percent of Westgate inmates are repeat offenders, that policy has been a complete failure.

So what are the answers? It appears that Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox and Prisons Commissioner Edward Dyer have some.

Mr. Dyer has stated that ion scanning of inmates and prison officers will start shortly. That should have an immediate effect on drug importation.

Changes in drug rehabilitation -- so that inmates at different stages of addiction and recovery can start counselling immediately -- should also help.

Overcrowding is a more difficult problem. There will always be some debate over whether non-violent offenders, including those who fail or refuse to pay fines, child support or debts, should be placed in a high security prison, or indeed, whether they should be incarcerated at all.

But the courts must have a "last resort'' to fall back on when all else has failed and like it or not, the fallback when millions of dollars are owned in fines is prison.

However, it makes little sense for those who fail to pay fines to be jailed at a rate of $10 per day -- that figure has not changed since at least the early 1980s, and the dollar was worth considerably more then.

It would also make more sense for those who fail to pay to be made to work off their debts or fines while in prison; there are plenty of parts of Bermuda which need cleaning up and it would seem fair for those who flagrantly ignore court orders to put something back into society while at work.

This in no ways means that inmates should be put in chain gangs of anything of that sort, only that inmates should give something back to society while they are in prison.

In order to cut recidivism (the rate of repeat offences) more counselling and rehabilitation services are needed. These kinds of programmes, as well as post-prison employment, do not guarantee success, but they are a lot better than what is going on now.

And even some success will lead to lower costs for prisons, reduced overcrowding and a safer and healthier society. Those are worthy goals for any government.