PM: Justice system skewed in favour of perpetrators, not victims

THE PRIME MINISTER has alleged that people out on bail are carrying out criminal business, a part of which involves “paying the lawyer and bail man.”

Speaking during the Conversations with the Prime Minister on May 23 at the Scarborough Library, Tobago, Dr Rowley was highly critical of the justice system as it relates to its treatment of those who commit murders and other violent crimes.

Referring specifically to those out on bail for violent acts, Rowley said, “Is a business they are carrying on, and the system facilitates it, because the system is skewed towards the rights of those people and not the rights of the victim.

“And until we start to look at these things from that perspective, then they laughing at us all the time, because the delay diminishes the horror of crime when crime takes place. So we need to be able to dispense justice faster and more effectively.”

Responding to a question from a Mason Hall resident, Wayne Pierre, about the government’s plans to reduce crime, Rowley said, “In terms of what we can do to reduce the instances of crime and make the place safer, what we aim to do is to not let crime pay. If there are people who believe they can commit crime with impunity, they will do it and others will join them so there is an increase.

“But we have to have systems in place where for those who have broken the law and commit, especially violent crimes, that they are held to account in a very real and effective manner and then we get justice on time.”

He said, unfortunately, much of that is not happening.

“In fact, it is now good business and the criminals do it. If you banish the apprehended, there is a very good chance that he will be getting grandchildren before your case goes to the courthouse. That is an area of serious concern to me.”

Rowley said although the police “do a significant amount of good work and will apprehend somebody, for some reason the process of bringing that person to getting a jail cell or whatever conviction brings for him is now something to take place in the future.

“And then of course, by the time the case comes around, the outrageous nature of the crime seems to have been reduced because that happened so long ago.”

He spoke about a situation in which a woman complained she had been raped 15 years earlier and was in the courthouse still waiting for the matter to be tried.

Rowley said that, to him, is a bigger problem than the Prime Minister having to respond to calls to fire National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds.

He said for many people who work in the area of managing the affairs of criminals, “One of their strongest defence is the delay, and we need to get serious about that.”

Rowley observed that some countries with serious crime problems were able to “eliminate delays, bring people to court, dispense with them and remove them from the society.”

Lamenting that TT appears to be heading in the opposite direction, Rowley said in the era in which he was raised, “We were no more barbarous than we are now.”

Further, he said, “Where I grew up, if you were charged for murder, you had no bail to get, and I never knew about anybody killing witnesses.

“But in this environment, where you get bail for murder and you come out and you have a gun again, what the hell do you expect? And they are following other people’s situation which are not fit for our situations.”

Rowley said he reads the newspaper early in the mornings or late at nights.

“The two things that get to me are when people, especially children, are hurt in violent crime, and when people use the system of justice in a way where they say they benefited. The perpetrator has benefited, not the victim.

"That gets to me and I feel helpless in that situation, because there is always some excuse.” Saying he was not attacking anybody personally, Rowley added, “I am just talking about the system.”