Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
ACKNOWLEDGING that he is "ashamed" of the deplorable condition prevailing at several courthouses islandwide, Senator A. J. Nicholson, Attorney-General and Justice Minister, is pushing for some $248 million in government funding next financial year, to accelerate the programme for upgrading courthouses.
The Minister is also underscoring the need for a community-based approach in the upkeep and maintenance of the nation's courthouses.
"Because of our keen awareness of the need to wrap up the Court Improvement Programme, the Ministry of Justice is seeking to secure some $248 million for fiscal year 2003/04," disclosed Senator Nicholson. He was addressing Thursday evening's official opening of the Ramble Courthouse in Hanover.
"Whether or not the Ministry is successful in receiving the amount we seek in the year's allocation, the country requires a sense of community ownership of our courthouses," Senator Nicholson said.
He insisted that his Ministry covered considerable ground in improving some courthouses this financial year (2002/03). His remarks come in the wake of reports carried in The Gleaner late last year that the Cornwall Bar Association had repeatedly expressed outrage at the derelict state of many of the island's courts.
Turning his attention to the county of Cornwall, Senator Nicholson said $6 million has been spent on upgrading major courthouses in four western parishes. Among them were the Lucea, Savlamar, Montego Bay and Black River Resident Magistrate's Courts.
"We went down to the Black River Court, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry and I... sometime last year and to tell you the truth, I was ashamed. The staff were hooked up in a space... and between all of that were boxes and files," he commented.
The entire top floor, the ground floor and wings of the building is being refurbished, a new roof is being installed and the court furniture restored. That major rehabilitation has chalked up expenses in the region of three-quarter million dollars.
Word from the Ministry of Justice is that it recently spent $200,000 on improvement works at the Savanna-la-Mar Resident Magistrate's Court to provide an additional judge's chamber, repair the roof and stairway and install a 250-gallon water tank.
"The Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court also benefited recently from upgrading work valued at approximately 42.2 million, and an estimated $1.6 million is to be spent in the next fiscal year," outlined the Attor-ney-General.
The Ramble community has taken the initiative to be the guardians of the newly-opened Resident Magistrate's Court in that community. Colin Wright, lay magistrate and chairman of the Ramble Consultative Com-mittee, has announced that his organisation has taken the plunge to provide the necessary measures needed to always keep the Ramble Courthouse in 'good nick'.
Mr. Wright says that the Ramble Consultative Committee will soon be undertaking the landscaping of the grounds of the courthouse.
The Ramble Courthouse was officially opened on Thursday, after being closed for 14 years. It was destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.
The restoration for the courthouse had a price tag of some $6 million. Of that amount, the Lift Up Jamaica Programme that employed some 30 tradesmen on repairing the site, carried out infrastrutural work on the building to the tune of $3 million. The remaining sum came from the Ministry of Justice, for the provision of furniture, electrical wiring and other amenities at the site.
The prolonged closure of the facility had earned the ire of the Hanover Lay Magistrate's Association, Cornwall Bar Association and residents of Ramble and its environs who contended that although repairs to the courthouse was completed two years ago, the facility remained closed to the public, despite their lobby efforts to the Government.
