King: substandard prisons verge on ‘violation of human rights’
The state of the island’s prisons needs to be “treated as a national crisis”, the Opposition has stated in the wake of a damning assessment made public this month.
Robert King, the Shadow Minister of Justice, spoke after the review of the Bermuda Department of Corrections was released last week in the Senate by Kim Wilkerson, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.
Ms Wilkerson pledged to bring quarterly updates to the Senate as the island moved forward on “a clear action plan and the combined commitment to improve this system” following the report from the Detention Standards Review Panel.
Mr King, who became a corrections officer in 1996 before serving more than 20 years as a senior probation officer, said the deficiencies highlighted, from poor infrastructure to a lack of staff, revealed a system that was setting up inmates to fail.
He told The Royal Gazette: “It could be argued that conditions in Westgate would fall close to a violation of human rights.”
He highlighted the “substandard living conditions that a person is incarcerated in” as a rights issue.
Mr King added: “Fundamentally, a person incarcerated is incarcerated because a court found him or her guilty of an offence. The punishment was incarceration — not to be treated poorly or deprived of basic human rights.”
Referring to an external review of the police released last year, he said that “what struck me was the similarity between that audit and the police review by the Hertfordshire Constabulary that spoke about police culture”.
“The inmates, prison officers, persons who have visited, the lawyers and courts, all know what’s going on in the Department of Corrections and what needed to be addressed. The audit put it into a format that forced people rationally analyse these issues and take responsibility for it.
“All the audit did was say what everybody else said, and that was not taken seriously.”
“The conditions identified in the independent Detention Standards Review are serious and deserve serious attention and serious action,” a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice say.
“That is precisely why the Government commissioned the review, why we tabled it publicly and why work on implementing its recommendations has already begun.
“Behind every recommendation in this report are real people: officers carrying out difficult work under challenging circumstances, families who expect safer communities and individuals who must ultimately leave prison better prepared to re-enter society than when they entered it. Every one of them deserves better than what the current system has often delivered.
“The challenges outlined in the report did not emerge overnight. They developed over many years and across multiple administrations. What matters now is whether we are prepared to confront those challenges honestly and act responsibly.
“The Ministry of Justice chose to begin with transparency, commissioned an independent review, received its findings and placed them before the public.
“Work is already under way to address the recommendations outlined in the report, including improvements to infrastructure, officer support, institutional safety, rehabilitation programmes, and the strengthening of key areas of the correctional system. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice has committed to quarterly updates to the public, via ministerial statements in the Senate.
“The Ministry of Justice’s focus remains on the work ahead and the people it is meant to serve.
“The work ahead will not be completed overnight, but we are committed to ensuring Bermuda’s correctional system is safer, more secure and more focused on rehabilitation for the benefit of officers, inmates and the wider community alike.”
Last week, Ms Wilkerson also tabled the 2025 annual report by the Treatment of Offenders Board, which echoed many of the issues raised by the independent reviewers.
The board said it “emphasises that rehabilitation requires structured life skills development”. Among recommendations was a recommendation that the Government look into the General Education Diploma as “a consideration or prerequisite for parole eligibility”.
The report added: “Education remains one of the most powerful tools for rehabilitation.”
Mr King responded: “Sure, we can do that. The point is, what are we prioritising?”
He said critical staff shortages meant that “they do not have enough psychologists, and they do not have the dedicated, fit for purpose treatment rooms”.
“If they don’t have programmes available for persons who have a criminal attitude and beliefs entrenched, it’s going to get worse.”
Mr King said that while the Casemates building that preceded Westgate had been in poor condition, it had operated with a better culture.
“I’ve spoken with corrections officers who talked about what life was like in the old Casemates, and what they’ve described was a system where the guys were working, given the opportunity to get skills.”
He maintained that in previous decades, getting staff for the uniformed services had been comparatively “easy”.
“You had trained people who could pass the psychological and background checks. Thirty years ago, there was no problem getting qualified staff. That does not exist any more.”
Mr King said “an education system that’s falling behind”, along with emigration, were worsening the problem.
“The pool of qualified candidates is dwindling. We have to make it attractive for people in Bermuda to choose corrections as a career.”
He also faulted the succession planning within corrections as staff retired.
The Treatment of Offenders Board report highlighted “ongoing concerns” that had been raised the previous year — noting that some in the community had stepped forward to volunteer in corrections facilities “particularly in educational and vocational capacities, yet many reportedly have not received responses”.
The report also faulted limits on inmate work hours.
Mr King said: “We need to use that time to educate them and get them into vocational training. If they do not come out better off than when they went in, it’s just a matter of time before they return.”
He said the first 30 days of incarceration were crucial for instilling “the motivation for change”.
“The sooner we can get a person fixed up with programmes and engages, we get the best outcome possible.”
Ms Wilkerson acknowledged last week in the Upper House that the board had been “candid” on systemic concerns, some of which had been “documented in previous reporting cycles”.
She added: “Chief among them is the ongoing impact of staffing shortages on the delivery of education programmes, medical services, case management and legal and appeal preparation.
“The board also identifies the increasing number of inmates with serious mental health diagnoses as one of the most significant emerging risks facing the system — a concern echoed by the independent review panel.”
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