Bermuda has been plagued by a worsening gang and gun crime problem.HAMILTON, Bermuda, – National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief says the country is looking into shipping out convicted gangsters to serve their time in jails overseas in an attempt to break up Bermuda’s gangs and ease friction between gang members in the local prison system.
He told the Royal Gazette newspaper that preliminary investigations are underway to make this a reality, using prisons in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
“When people are in prison in Bermuda there are lots of visits from family and friends and lots of opportunities for them to continue their communication with gang members on the outside,” Perinchief, a former assistant commissioner of police, told the newspaper.
Suggesting that isolating criminals is the only way to stop them staying in touch with fellow gang members he added: “It’s very difficult to insulate people when they are incarcerated in Bermuda; they want to continue with that antisocial behaviour. This is the isolation that is needed. They won’t be able to get information from or have contact with their contemporaries.”
Bermuda has been plagued by a worsening gang and gun crime problem. Perinchief said if the overseas prison arrangement becomes possible, those convicted of shooting murders would be at the top of the list.
The National Security Minister has acknowledged that it’s early days yet but said the option was something he was really pushing for.
“I’m sure all sorts of detracting factors will arise, but it’s not as if I have pulled this idea from a hat, it has been considered before,” he said.
In the 1830s and more recently, in 1960, a few convicts were sent to the United Kingdom and Australia to serve sentences for a variety of crimes ranging from theft to murder in a process called “transportation”.
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