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Guyana’s legal system lacks comprehensive sentencing guidelines – Nandlall
Guyana’s legal system lacks comprehensive guidelines which are needed by Judges and Magistrates when they are implementing their sentences.
This is the observation of former Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall.
He noted that every offence has a certain penalty attached to it based on the facts presented. While these penalties are in place for an offence, when it comes to the sentencing of the offender the penalty is left at the discretion of a Judge or Magistrate.
This may appear to be unfair to some persons as they in turn would question the decision made or the rights of an individual, Nandlall said.
“We need to implement sentencing guidelines which will clean up the inconsistency when it comes to handing down a sentence. Sentencing must reflect society’s need to punish crimes.”
Anil Nandlall
He added that it is unfair to place the sole discretion of a Judge or Magistrates to guide the implementation of a sentence.
In 2017 a sentencing council was recommended following a study which looked at alternatives to incarceration for pre-trial detainees.
The report on the findings of the study was prepared by consultant Peter Pursglove under the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP) of the Public Security Ministry which indicated that there was a lack of clear and coherent sentencing policies.
According to Nandlall, “Over 10 years ago we got financing for a consultant to be sought so as to implement sentencing guidelines. However, the guidelines were never implemented.”
The sentencing council’s job was to draft sentencing guidelines which can improve transparency, predictability and consistency of sentencing.
According to the study, the guideline can help to address the problems of prison over-use, sentencing disparity, increase public confidence in the criminal justice system and provide a means of avoiding the politicization of sentencing practice and policy.
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