Government plans to change the law after complaints that foreign prisoners are not given the same opportunity for parole as Bermudians.

Revealing the news yesterday, Minister of Home Affairs David Burch indicated that rather than offering foreigners parole, sentence lengths will instead be reduced so they don't end up behind bars longer than locals.

The issue has hit the headlines recently due to British prisoner Martin Cashman taking Government to court over the fact he's been denied parole.

Cashman, who is serving an 11-year jail term for heroin importation, wants the same rights as Bermudian prisoners who can be considered for release after serving a third of their sentence.

He lost his case at the Supreme Court in July but his lawyer Eugene Johnson is pressing for it to be reconsidered on constitutional grounds, arguing that Cashman's civil liberties and human rights are at stake.

There is no arrangement in place allowing British prisoners to be paroled back to the UK, despite Bermuda being a British Overseas Territory.

There is, however, a reciprocal agreement allowing Jamaican prisoners to be paroled back to their home country. One of the problems cited by Government in the Cashman case is the difficulty in ensuring paroled prisoners are supervised by the authorities in their home countries as they would be in Bermuda.

Announcing what he described yesterday as "changes to parole eligibility for foreign nationals," Sen. Burch said: "Much work has been done in this regard already and I anticipate the formal part of this process — Cabinet approval followed by drafting instructions is imminent.'

Asked how the law-change would work, Sen. Burch said he was not going to give foreigners the same parole rights as Bermudians. "What we're proposing to do is to find a median point. At the moment, Bermudians can be released on parole having served one third of their sentence.

"What we're likely to do and this will clearly be for the next Minister to carry forward the discussions we've been involved in is to arrive at a point where we've gotten our pound of flesh as in terms of punishment so it serves as a deterrent," he said.

"Most of the people we have incarcerated are as a result of importing drugs. We don't want to come up with a period of incarceration that's insignificant.

"What we want it to be is significant enough that it serves as a deterrent. The person who's brought drugs into the Country is then removed. It's not a question of parole but reducing their sentence so they are then sent home."