AG: Govt has done much to improve penal system

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi says damning observations by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) on this country's penal system came after only half of the story was told to the commission.

He claimed there was a "dereliction of duty" to not report to these bodies that a significant amount of work was done to reform the system. Exactly who was derelict, he did not state.

The commission expressed deep shock after Dean of the Faculty of Law, UWI, St Augustine, Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine pleaded a case on behalf of dozens of people locked up in remand yard, including battered women. The commission said it felt so deeply appalled by what is taking place in TT's remand yard system that it may very well formally write to the government on the issue.

Antoine led a small delegation before the IAHRC, at the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Washington DC on Monday and spoke of people including battered women, languishing in jail awaiting trial, some for much longer than the actual sentence prescribed for the crimes they are accused of.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Port of Spain West Rotary Club luncheon at the Cascadia Hotel in St Ann's, Al-Rawi said, "It is no mistaking the system needs significant reform, that is why I was able to tell you that the first exercise the AG's Office did was to go to the prisons to assess its state and condition.

"Why I say the story is only half way is that there is a dereliction of duty to not report to those bodies that a significant amount of work to reform the system has happened. We have engaged in maximum sentence indication. Four hundred people in one month went before the courts to figure out if they should come out or not.

"We've introduced plea bargaining with easy access to bail. We've dealt with arrangements in court to accelerate cases because let's face facts, why are people in prison? What was complained of in that report is that if they were in prison for too long a period of time, that was cruel and unusual punishment," Al-Rawi said.

The AG said the argument didn't speak to why these people were still there. He said they were there because their trial didn't happen yet because the process was not being fixed. He said significant reforms they have taken will address this situation and certainly better the position, but it did not mean this Government had its head in the sand.

He said a lengthy waiting time was due to many factors. "We have to ask why has your trial not happened? Do you have a judge? Do you have a jury? Do you have witnesses? Do you have a defendant? Do you have evidence? Are the police in court? Is the prosecutor in court? Is the defendant's attorney in court?"

At the meeting on Monday, Prof Belle Antoine spoke of people being locked up in remand for many years, some as long as 21 years, awaiting trial.

"I talked about the 146,000 cases. I talked about them being at the magistrates' court and the need to move that bottle-necking. Take 104,000 cases off from motor vehicle and road traffic. Take out 29,000 cases of preliminary inquiries. I talked about 43 magistrates being more effective looking at 13,000 cases as opposed to 146,000 cases.

"I talked about the criminal division, the family and children division, plea bargaining, maximum sentence indication. You need to be reminded of just how much work we did. We are talking about ground-breaking, epically important manoeuvres."

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