Canadian firm to continue judiciary, police training

May 08, 2019 News

The Justice Education Society (JES), a Canadian institution, is slated to continue an educational programme it has been executing in Guyana, to strengthen Guyana’s crime fighting infrastructure.
The firm has been working in Guyana since 2015, on the “Strengthen the Criminal Justice System” project. Its recent contract ended in February.
In the past, the projects have been commissioned by the Canadian High Commission and the US Embassy in Guyana.
For the first project (2015-2017), JES has worked on increasing the knowledge and skills of police investigators in crime scene processing and case management, police prosecutors and public prosecutors in criminal case preparation, magistrates in legal management and trial management techniques, and increase access to forensic video analysis and crime scene equipment
The second project (2016-2019), developed on the first, and also worked on improving case preparation, trial advocacy, ensuring media and public support for justice system reform, and developing the capacity of the Guyanese criminal justice system to collect and effectively analyze CCTV camera digital evidence recorded at a crime scene.
Due to a commitment by the US government to extend support to Guyana’s criminal justice system, JES will be continuing its service here until March 2021. The US Embassy has indicated that it will support the renewal of that project with an additional US$850,000.
JES has indicated that it “does not focus simply on training but approaches the justice system development holistically in a multi-phase process involving: diagnosing needs and issues; training personnel, replicated in a “train the trainer” model; creating or enabling institutional structures and procedures; providing required equipment; and providing ongoing coaching, monitoring and evaluation.”
A release from the US Embassy said that it notes the work of Guyana “to ensure the security of its citizens, counter transnational crime, and increase effective and timely prosecutions, and is pleased to collaborate with Guyana on these efforts.”
Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, has spoken about the efforts of the government to increase the capacity of the justice system. He has also said that the government hopes to attract persons with stronger academic backgrounds to the force, so that they could work more toward pre-empting and preventing crime, than catching and prosecuting criminals. The Minister said that, despite shortfalls, Guyana has a relatively low rate of violent crime, considering the region it is in (Latin America and Caribbean), and commended the police force for keeping it that way.

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