Too many on remand
Approximately 50 per cent of the persons at Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds are on remand.
Seeking to address this, judges, prosecutors, police prosecutors and lawyers have gathered for a two-day workshop, hosted by the National Centre for State Courts in collaboration with the office of the Chief Justice, to enhance their knowledge of the use of Goodyear Hearings/ Maximum Sentence Indications and Plea Agreements.
“We have too many people on remand at a prison that was constructed to hold 1 200 people… We have nearly 50 per cent of the persons in the prison on remand, which mean that they are there awaiting a trial.
“One of the solutions which has been proposed is the basis of this Workshop on Goodyear Hearings/Maximum Sentence Indications; the idea of affording them the opportunity to accept a guilty plea,” the Hon. Sir Marston Gibson, Chief Justice of Barbados, told the members of the judiciary gathered at the Radisson Hotel, yesterday.
Guilty pleas and plea agreements are commonplace in state and federal courts in the United States. Over 90 per cent of cases are resolved through plea agreements. The use of Goodyear Hearings/ Maximum Sentence Indications has increased in the region particularly in Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and the OECS countries.
“The problem is of course that it is not that simple. There are rules and procedures which have to be followed to ensure that the guilty plea will withstand appellate scrutiny and there are all sorts of areas in which one can make a mistake. For that reason, we were able to obtain the assistance of the National Centre for State Courts represented by JoAnne Richardson, Project Director as well as Sirah Abraham, Criminal Justice Co-ordinator for the Eastern Caribbean.”
Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite, said such workshops cannot be a one-off event, as many more sessions like these are needed, “because what we do want is for those of you at the criminal bar to not only buy-in to what we want to accomplish in terms the plea bargaining, but we want you to be comfortable … that you continue to act in the best interest of your clients”.
The AG noted that in trying to address the burning issue of the backlog in the criminal justice system, preliminary inquiries have been abolished and they are moving ahead with ensuring that the recording of interviews will be mandatory.
He further pointed out that with the number of cases presently in the criminal justice system, there are not enough judges.
“So, we need to have some additional resources in that regard. Even with Continuous Assizes, the numbers tell you that the present number of judges, with the best will in the world – we need some additional resources… In addition, we are going to have to find some way to take the most serious criminal matters and have a magistrate initially focus on those most serious matters… We should have a court that deals with the more serious matters.”
The workshop is being conducted in an interactive, peer-to-peer learning environment designed to help attendees engage in establishing guidelines and developing rules and policies tailored to Barbados. Also, the workshop will emphasise fundamental principles of Case Management and examine the critical importance of preventing delays and reducing case backlog. (TL)