An independent board is needed to cut through bureaucracy in the Island's corrections system, according to its union boss.

Chairman of the Prison Officers Association (POA) Craig Clarke said he was tired of the "chopping and changing" that comes with new Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Commissioners.

Issues such as hiring more psychologists can get buried as each new person at the head of the regime has a "honeymoon period" and comes to grips with the position and then leaves.

Mr. Clarke has been raising these problems for years now and said he feels like nothing changes and what little improvements are made, take longer then they should.

That's why Mr. Clarke is calling for a Corrections Board that can help run the three prisons — Westgate, the Prison Farm and the Co-Ed Facility — and provide continuity.

"We need something like the Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB)," he said. "Right now there's no follow-through cause we are always changing the players.

"If we had a board in place, these issues that are already on the table would continue, rather than changing with the leaders.

"The Minister does try, but he's limited with it. It would make it easier for those on hand, who are the eyes and ears, to make sure things are done.

"As the union representative, when I look at the Department of Corrections it's always a new minister or a new permanent secretary."

The Board he envisions would be made-up of former prison officers or others with experience in the corrections field so they would understand intimately what is necessary to run the regime so, even if the Minister changes or a new Commissioner is brought in, the independent board would be on top of what the prisons needed.

One of the problems with the current system, according to Mr. Clarke, is that positions such as a prison psychologist, take months to fill because vetting of nominees can be complicated.

Hindering the process are those in the decision-making positions who do not always understand what the facilities need.

Currently there is one psychologist located at the Westgate facility, though a panel is interviewing between 35 and 40 individuals to fill two more places for psychiatrists.

However, even when these positions are filled, said Mr. Clarke, the psychiatrists are constrained in the programmes they can implement because these must also be approved by those higher up.

"There's a lot of bureaucracy," he said. "It shouldn't take month after month to get those people on the ground to help the inmates.

"Everything is just slow moving. I see a need to put a board in place because it's easier to deal with people who know how corrections works.

"What you find in this country, the decisions have to go to the Permanent Secretary and the Minister and they really do not grasp what it takes to run a corrections regime.

"In other jurisdictions they have boards which deal with how the training goes and what needs to be done."

The failure to employ more psychiatrists and even case workers is leading to a recidivism rate that sustains itself at between 75 to 80 percent, according to Mr. Clarke.

Not helping matters is the lack of case workers which means each of the six or seven employed at the prisons have almost 60 inmates they are responsible for.

He added: "Some of the recent crimes that have taken place have been ones of recidivism. They come back and back and their crimes get bigger and bigger.

"They start getting up to more gruesome crimes. Lives could have been saved had we gotten these people in to programmes.

"We spend a lot of money locking them up and throwing them away, but what happens when they come back out?

"If $50 million is being spent on the front end (Police, courts) then $100 million needs to be spent on the back end (prisons)."

Of course, Mr. Clarke admitted not everybody can be saved, but more needed to be in place to support the staff at the facilities and help reach as many inmates as possible.

"Some will not be saved, but some can be reached if you addressed the needs," he said. "The uniqueness in Bermuda is that it is 21 square miles.

"How do you get away from drugs? You run into the same people you need to stay away from. We need community programmes that give them something to count on.

"We are not doing enough to fundamentally change behaviour. If we had changed before we would not have the crime levels we have today."