The prison of paperwork

AT ANY trial, all parties get to tell their story.

Chief Justice (CJ) Ivor Archie and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, have availed themselves of their right to speak on charges against them relating to the criminal justice system.

That same privilege has been denied 1,706 people who are awaiting trial, half of whom have been waiting a decade.

The spectacle of public officers – who occupy posts of utmost sensitivity in the criminal justice system – engaging in a blame game is distressing.

But what the blame game has revealed is alarming.

Contrary to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s contention that nothing new has been disclosed, the impasse has given the public the clearest insight yet into the murky netherworld between “committal” and “indictment.”

Shockingly, the reasons why so many years lag between these two procedural steps seem entirely administrative.

By the DPP’s account, the situation relates to the scanning, copying and filing of 451 “bundles.” An agreement with the judiciary on filing, he said, was reneged upon.

In other words, it is paperwork keeping people behind bars.

It is like something out of a surreal Kafka novel.

The DPP also pointed to limitations of space and staff as well as covid19. Ironically, the CJ has done the same.

None of this accounts for the perception that the delays did not arise overnight, and that the pace of indictment has lagged behind the statistics for some time. So much so, governments have been driven to try to speed things up: abolishing preliminary inquiries, allowing paper committals, introducing judge-alone trials.

Mr Al-Rawi is of the view that given such important reforms, many of which will make their impact felt as time goes by, the system is “on the right track, headed in the right direction.”

But there is a thing in law called habeas corpus. It is a writ for wrongful custody, premised on the individual’s right to freedom absent good reason for detention.

With almost 1,000 people – who are entitled to be presumed innocent – waiting in jail for a decade or more, the State must take action to urgently deal with the backlog.

Instead of patting itself on the back, it should set up a special court to try old cases. This could be done digitally to reduce transport issues and avoid building new infrastructure.

Furthermore, the State can turn to regional jurists to oversee these cases, including the judges of the Caribbean Court of Justice, so as to avoid the burden of hiring judges permanently.

For this to work, the CJ, the DPP, the AG, the Prime Minister and the Opposition must collaborate.

Or perhaps what we need is officials spending less time talking and more time photocopying.