Haynes: People feel justice system broken

OPPOSITION Senator Anita Haynes said citizens believe the justice system is broken and laws passed in Parliament do nothing to help them.

“They feel there is little to no justice for the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago,” Haynes said, contributing on the Criminal Division Bill in the Senate on Thursday.

She said looking at the nation there was a clearly a problem with crime.

“(There is) also a sense by the population that what we do here in Parliament really has no impact on daily life.”

Haynes said the society had high levels of crime and criminality.

“People are burying their children.”

She said she had spoken to people who work within the judicial system and they gave her the analogy of the gas light blinking in a car, everything else is attended to but the gas and then you are surprised when the car shuts down.

“The AG has listed a lot of work. But has he put gas in the car? Are you treating the problems that have (arisen)?

She questioned whether the bill would address the issues that Chief Justice Ivor Archie raise every year at the opening of the law term including the low detection rate, lack of lawyers at the criminal bar and delays in prisoners arriving to court.

“We have to start at the beginning. We starting at the end of the process....With all the legislation passed are we solving crime or the judiciary problems? No (we are not).”

She asked if the bill was just another legislative check on a box that would not help citizens. She stressed that not only the system had to be changed but also attitudes and views.

“If you change the system and you have the same people with the same attitudes and views about justice delivery then you solve nothing.”

Haynes also said there was a sense that the police were “traffic obsessed” and while so many people were being caught in speed traps serious murderers were not being caught and the detection rate was low.

“There is a sense that the system was not working for the most vulnerable people in society.”