Decriminalise lesser offences, says Mottley

Civil penalties and not convictions!

Opposition Leader, Mia Mottley, is reiterating that only persons found guilty of committing heinous crimes should face sentences of confinement, while lesser offences should carry a fixed fine or acts of community service as punishment.

“This country has to have a different approach to our criminal justice system – that criminal justice must essentially be what it is said to be. Sentences of confinement ought to be reserved for what we understand to be criminal offences; manslaughter, murder, robbery, burglary, rape – those heinous offences that are instinctively criminal,” she pointed out.
Mottley insisted that the punishment of confinement for crimes such as illegal vending, holding a cell phone while driving behind the wheel, using abusive language and even failing to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle, should be considered outdated in a modern era.

Speaking to the media in her office at Parliament yesterday morning, she noted that in these difficult economic times, persons found guilty of committing minor offences may not be able to pay the fine to avoid going to prison.

“When you go for a job, you have to carry a certificate of character and we are making Barbadians criminals by having criminal convictions recorded against their names in the 21st century for things that ought to be the subject of civil penalties – fixed community service penalties, fixed fines – things that would free up the law courts and stop us from having a backlog of cases. You must reserve confinement for the most egregious acts in society,” Mottley detailed.

She added that the Barbados Labour Party’s manifesto also highlighted the need to decriminalise lesser offences. (JMB)