Court Superintendent’s Office commissioned in Berbice – as Govt. sets sight on modernized criminal justice system

Oct 10, 2020 News

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By Malisa Playter-Harry

Kaieteur News – As the world continues to evolve, Guyana is aiming to create a more modernized criminal justice system. In this regard, a brand-new edifice was commissioned at the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam, Berbice by the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, and Acting Commissioner of Police, Nigel Hoppie. The building is situated in the compound of the police station and will serve as the regional Court Superintendent’s Office.

The AG in his remarks stated that the Inter-American Development Bank funded project represents part of government’s agenda to build a criminal justice system that is modern, efficient and one that can deliver the quality and type of criminal justice to Guyanese. The project, he said, will handle “important concepts” and one of a similar nature was done in Georgetown.
“Here we have delivered a new building that will house the Court Superintendent office of Region Six and I am told that the request is for us to provide furnishings as we did in Georgetown and we intend to do so because the criminal justice system is important to the overall development and equation of the country,” he said.
Nandlall underscored the importance of person’s having access to justice and noted that it is important as “one’s access to healthcare and to education.” Persons, he said, have a right to be protected by the law and to be afforded a justice system that ensures that the rights and freedom are respected and protected. He posited too that “often when we speak about criminal justice, we only consider one factor or one component and

that is the interest of the accused. Now the interest of the accused is very important, and it forms the fundamental pillar which the criminal justice system rests, but another important pillar is the rights of the victim or the rights of the state or the public interest in the administration of criminal justice.”
The AG mentioned too, that whenever a crime is committed and there is a victim, the wrong is also committed against the state and while the defence or the defendant has a right to retain an attorney that is only one component of the administration of justice. The other components are the victim’s interest and the public good and it is the harmonious balance of these interests that ensure that there is true delivering of criminal justice, he said.
The Minister stressed that the state’s responsibility therefore “is to ensure that its prosecutorial arm is equipped with both the physical infrastructure and hardware, as well as the personnel required.”
Nandlall assured that the current project will be one that ensures the objective is achieved. Shedding light on some of the initiatives his government will be looking to execute successfully, he said that persons who have a Bachelor’s of Law degree but have not pursued the legal

certificate of education at the various law schools in the region would be eligible to be further trained and recruited. They will be provided with the opportunity to be trained in a prosecutorial programme and they will then be amalgamated into the police force “to join the prosecutorial ranks at the bar table of magistrates courts right across the lengths and breadth of this country.”
Over 60 persons have expressed interest and they have also indicated their willingness to join the programme.
Nandlall said that the idea is to have an attorney at every magistrate’s court to prosecute every offence but noted that in the interim the current initiative “will go a far away in improving the level of prosecutorial service at the magistrate’s court level. At the level of the high court, the state provides a state prosecutor who is a full-fledged lawyer but according to Nandlall, “we can’t replicate that in the magistrate’s court. So what we are doing, we are adding LLB graduates to aid and assist police prosecutors.”
He revealed too that his ministry is actively in the process of recruiting a consultant to design the syllabus for the prosecutorial programme and an approach has already been made with the University of Guyana where it will be taught and upon completion a certificate issued.

He stated that there are other initiatives that will be instituted to help “augment and advance the criminal justice system in Berbice in particular.”
With new challenges encountered and with new transformations expected to take place, the AG is adamant that the Guyana Police Force and the criminal justice system must also transform at the same pace so that the developmental agenda of the country can be met. He said the other components of the programme which his government will bring to Berbice are initiatives “that we will work along with the Human Services Ministry for example and the Ministry of Health to offer assistance both in resources and in training in the area of probation, mental health and rehabilitation for drug offenders. We will launch training programmes so that magistrates and judges are reminded of the alternatives that the law offer to custodial sentences.”
“There is a repertoire of remedies in the law which offers an alternative penalty to custodial sentences and one of the objectives is to reduce the prison population that will necessarily involve the use of non-custodial remedial measures and penalties,” Nandlall added.
He mentioned that there are some statutory interventions that were accentuate into the laws some 10 years ago that are hardly being used. These include plea bargaining and paper committals.
“You have to start using them so that we don’t overload the criminal justice system. You can enter into a plea bargain and finish a case that will take five years in five days, and paper committal, why waste time in the magistrate’s court when you know that a committal is inevitable. Just go to the magistrate and consent to the committal and throw the matter over to the high court. These are simple measures put into law 10 years ago and they have not been used so this project will bring back focus into those things,” Nandlall said.
Nandlall said too that government is currently working on sentencing guidelines and referenced the many times media coverage has published articles that were critical on the “erratic sentencing patterns” but added “you do so with justification”.
Sentencing guidelines, he said, will bring greater uniformity and consistency and are intended to give guidance to the exercise of such discretion. He also mentioned that in the case of granting bail, it has been the subject of great controversy in the public domain.
“The way the discretion and the power of granting and refusing bail has been exercised, the Bail Act is intended to set down the principles that ought to govern the grant or refusal of bail, that Act, we have a modern one that has been drafted and is now out with the bar associations, with the judiciary, receiving their comments and benefitting their consultations. Hopefully that process will be completed and we will have a new modern Bail Act that will help you, the prosecutors, and will help the tribunals as well in determining how bail should or should not be granted.”
He said too that all that is necessary will be done to modernize the criminal justice system in Guyana.
Meanwhile, Hoppie, the Acting Commissioner of Police, in brief remarks, noted that the project, which is divided into two components, will see the first component seeking to reduce the use of pre-trial detention, especially individuals with minor offences.
“The idea was to provide better legal assistance for individuals accused of non-violent offences, improve the prosecutor’s ability to handle cases, according to the seriousness and the gravity of the offence; strengthen the judiciary and design and implement a restorative justice programme and the second component increases the use of alternative sentencing. This includes strengthening the country’s legal drafting functions, organising probation services and implementing a pilot project at the magistrate’s court level to apply alternative to imprisonment on violent offenders,” he said. He added that such a programme could not have come at a better time “since it comes when our country is set to experience significant changes in the economic structure coupled with globalization and mass immigration.”
Also speaking at the event was Regional Chairman, David Armogan.

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