Bermudians need to help out with running prison programmes if alarming re-offending rates are ever going to fall, says Prison Officers Association chairman Craig Clarke.

Government figures showed recidivism rose ten percent to 78 percent this year. A total of 332 prisoners re-offended.

Now prison authorities are looking overseas to man programmes because not enough locals help out.

Mr. Clarke said: "We have workshops at Westgate dormant because we can't find individuals to facilitate the programmes."

He said Government had promised a construction programme in last year's Throne speech and the department had aggressively pursued individuals to run it but with no luck.

Mr. Clarke said: "We can talk about corrections all we like but unless people are prepared to do something to help us nothing will change in Bermuda.

"Bermudians are some of the most compassionate people in the world who will give to any cause globally.

"However we must begin to give to our own people and then we will see the impact within the walls of our institutions."

According to Government figures the Bermuda taxpayer pays almost $70,000 a year to house an inmate and nearly $28 million will be spent on prisons this year.

This week retiring Assistant Police Commissioner Carlton Adams said more needed to be done to tackle alarming recidivism rates because some convicts were committing fresh crimes just days after their release.

Prison Commissioner Edward Lamb agreed with Mr. Clarke that more people needed to help run workshops which would train prisoners to take jobs after serving their sentences.

He said: "We have been trying for some time to get workshops up and running with some measure of success.

"I don't want to divulge details but in 2009 we are looking to have industry not just workshops."

But he said there was a big demand for construction professionals who could earn far more outside than they could tutoring prisoners.

Lt. Col. Lamb said preparing and running the workshops could take the best part of a day.

A civilian has been hired to run the carpentry class and there were negotiations to get inmates certification in the construction trades, he said.

There had also been an approach by someone wanting to run a mechanical engineering and autobody workshop but the cost had been prohibitive, said the Commissioner.

Probed about Bermuda's high re-offending rates Lt. Col. Lamb said that prison authorities were doing their best to rehabilitate inmates but it was a wider problem as many ending up back on drugs despite getting cleaned up inside.

He said: "We do our best to secure housing and work for them.

"There are so many social factors, prison rehabilitation is only a piece in the puzzle. Drugs are taking a devastating toll on this country," said Lt. Col. Lamb

Asked if Westgate was too soft he said: "We have a very strict regime in which confinement and deprivation of liberty is a tough sentence."

But he said the problem often lays with the lifestyle choices of those for whom Westgate was just a temporary hiatus.