Overcrowding at the prisons…60% of Camp Street inmates on remand

Overcrowding at the prisons…60% of Camp Street inmates on remand – COI Report

Jun 11, 2016 News

The report into the Commission of Inquiry, (COI) into the March 3, 2016 Camp Street Prison tragedy has outlined that the systemic causes of the tragedy – the excessive numbers of prisoners in the facility, delays in trials, defective equipment – are almost entirely out of the hands of the Guyana Prison Service.
Failures on the part of what ought to be supporting agencies of the State was highlighted in the report. These include the Judiciary and Magistracy, the Probation Service, the Parole Board, Prison Visiting Committees and with a lesser degree of responsibility, the Ministry of Health.
“The crucial role played by these agencies has a contribution to the events which unfolded in Camp Street.”
The Judiciary/Magistracy, the report noted, is responsible for the safety and well-being of remand prisoners.
According to the information presented in the report of the 60% of inmates of Camp Street prison on remand (604/1014), 149 are charged with murder, 50% of whom have been awaiting trial for more than 3 years and a further 30% for more than 4 years.
The report said that these figures and the lack of effective – or even ineffective action to remedy them, points to serious dysfunction in the administration of justice.
“For those not yet committed to trial in the High Court Preliminary Inquiries still have to be held. For those already committed, depositions have to be prepared before the cases can be called.”
To this extent, this Commission of Inquiry cannot overlook the irony that Camp Street prison administration is now under investigation for performing a service thrust upon them over the years to off-set the limitations and negligence of the Judiciary/Magistracy.
The Commission noted that the situation continues to prevail because the average citizen is not encouraged either by popular or judicial culture to pay much attention to the presumption of innocence. ‘Where there is smoke there must be fire’ is more the operative principle, undermining the seriousness of lumping together convicted and non-convicted persons for years on end.
The report outlined “over-crowding as the result of weakness in the administration of justice which remains unaddressed by the Judiciary and Magistracy.”
“It is evident that the group of judicial personae have adopted an overly-restrictive and even punitive approach to granting bail, and an unwillingness to apply alternative sentences to imprisonment has ensued.
“The consequent backlog of cases in the High Court has reached astronomic proportions and there is no sign of a downward trend anytime soon.”
According to the report the Judiciary has not taken steps, or has not publicized steps it may have taken, with respect to addressing the severity of the back-log of remand cases.
As noted elsewhere, the report outlined that steps are still to be undertaken to monitor or encourage implementation of modern approaches to sentencing, both in practice and in law.
The report said that continued use of Preliminary Inquiries (PI) rather than paper-based processes further encourages delays in the judicial process, prolonging the time persons spend on remand.
“Retention of PI should be a thing of the past and their retention represents resistance to modernizing of court procedures. The PI has survived an entire era of some 500 years, moving from the oral to the digital, bypassing entirely the era of the printed word.”
“Over a decade ago, the Criminal Law Review Committee called in 2004 for more efficient processing of depositions, especially if paper-based committals were to come into effect, to ensure that eliminating PIs did not lead to delays found in the Magistrates’ Courts simply being transferred to the higher courts.”
Despite the contribution of the Judiciary to the crisis in prisons, culpability for the limitations of the administration of justice has been deflected largely elsewhere onto other agencies and sectors of the society.
The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was also mentioned in the report but due to time constraints, any influence the Office of the DPP may be able to exercise in accelerating the judicial process was not examined by this COI, but merits attention.

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Overcrowding at the prisons…60% of Camp Street inmates on remand – COI Report

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Overcrowding at the prisons…60% of Camp Street inmates on remand – COI Report

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