Assessment confirms staffing shortages plague prisons
An independent review of Bermuda’s prisons found “notable inconsistency in policy and practice”, particularly at Westgate, with “weakness” in recruitment of staff and insufficient investment in infrastructure.
Staffing shortages in particular were highlighted as having a “significant negative impact on staff morale, especially at Westgate”.
Kim Wilkerson, the Attorney-General, tabled the report by the Detention Standards Review panel this morning in the Senate — although large sections of the 41-page document appear to be redacted.
Ms Wilkerson said it contained “difficult findings” covering “serious and systemic challenges”, notably at Westgate. It came with 75 overall recommendations.
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice said good practices had also been reviewed. Westgate’s healthcare was said to be “particularly positive”, while the Co-Educational and Farm facilities were found to have “a positive and hopeful regime” that “demonstrated what is possible”.
She added that a staff profile team from His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service was now on the island to ensure that roles and responsibilities were “properly aligned with operations needs and staff capacity” in the corrections system.
However, Ms Wilkerson told the Upper House that conditions at Westgate were “in several areas not fit for purpose”.
The independent assessment of facilities took place from October 6 to October 15, 2025. Panellists comprised senior correctional leaders from the Turks & Caicos Islands, Britain and the Cayman Islands.
Kim Wilkerson, the Attorney-General, tabled the 2025 annual report by the Treatment of Offenders Board this morning in the Senate.
The ten-person board highlighted a “staffing crisis”, saying the shortage “impacts nearly every operational domain”.
It said high overtime was fuelling “burnout and attrition”.
The board noted rising numbers of inmates with “serious mental health diagnoses” as one of the “most significant emerging risks”, causing “increased tension between inmates” and “compassion fatigue” among officers.
It called for the hiring of two more forensic psychologists.
Among other shortcomings, the report said rehabilitation planning for case management was “slowed due to operational staffing demands”, while access to legal resources was said to be “inconsistent”.
The report added that “routine and specialist medical visits are frequently delayed” and said, on the education front, limited officer availability limited “inmate movement to classrooms”.
It called for “immediate recruitment” and said staffing should be seen “not as an operational asset, but as a foundational rehabilitation investment”.
Overall, the board again voiced “grave concern” over “persistent and unacceptable” conditions at Westgate, saying conditions raised in the previous report “remain largely unresolved”, posing “serious risks to health, safety and overall institutional integrity”.
While the panel said that much of the prison’s underlying problems with staffing, infrastructure and programmes were beyond the control of prison management, their report concluded that “failures in oversight and accountability within the senior team were the primary causes of many poor outcomes observed”.
The report stated that Westgate “lacks a structured classification system to group individuals by risk, offence type or rehabilitation needs”.
“The institution does not have formal written procedures for categorising or separating prisoners, and placement decisions are typically made based on accommodation availability and staff discretion, rather than standardised assessment protocols or validated tools.”
Inmates charged with capital offences were said to be “placed in segregation for security reasons” upon admission, but risk assessments were said to be informal and “undocumented”.
The report recommended: “Immediate action is needed to ensure segregation is lawful and transparent. It must be authorised by a competent authority, reviewed regularly, used only when necessary and proportionate and never applied as routine discipline.”
Overall, the panel found “critical issues within the accommodation, infrastructure and environmental conditions at Westgate”, requiring “immediate” intervention to “provide humane conditions for prisoners and staff”.
Both the Co-Ed and Prison Farm facilities were found to be in better condition.
The reviewers found that the prison’s complaints procedure, “while formally established, is slow and has lost the confidence of the inmate population”.
Among other issues highlighted in the report, the prison’s use of force policy was found to be “reactive rather than regulated”.
Assessors found that between March and September 2025, four staff use-of-force incidents and six prisoner-on-prisoner assaults were recorded. The report found “no evidence of disproportionate use, but limited data prevents full assessment”.
The report advised: “Avoid routine handcuffing of remand prisoners; restraint use should be risk-based and evidence-informed.”
Roughly half of Westgate inmates “lack understanding of their rights”, with the prison handbook dating to ten years ago “not routinely distributed” and newly arrived inmates given no access.
Ms Wilkerson told the Senate that the report “documents years of underinvestment and a gap between the standards we are bound to meet and the conditions that have, in some areas, been allowed to persist”.
She said the recommendations, with “a clear action plan and the combined commitment to improve this system”, were driving “the sustained, essential work of institutional reform”.
Ms Wilkerson added: “I commit to return to this Senate quarterly, to report on that progress.”
• To read the minister’s statement in full, see Related Media
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