By Roy Sanford, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE CORNWALL Bar Association has strongly criticised the St. James police over what its members claim is the arbitrary detention of young men for long periods without charges being preferred against them.
Clayton Morgan, president of the association, cited the case of Garfield Sawyers, who was released last week from police custody without charge after being detained for three weeks, and said there was cause for concern.
"The Cornwall Bar Association has been receiving several reports from attorneys and from other citizens that over the past months several young men, particularly between 17 and 25, are being picked up randomly off the streets and taken into custody with charges being laid against them," Mr. Morgan said.
"We are very concerned and we are going to insist that the rule of law prevails," he added.
The law allows for prisoners to be detained for up to 48 hours without being charged. However, Sawyers was among several others who had been languishing in Montego Bay lock-ups without charge since a police raid a month ago.
Mr. Morgan said he hoped to have a meeting with the Police High Command in the parish this week to discuss the matter. He said that although there had been cases of arrests without charges in the past, the phenomenon had increased recently. "In the months before we hardly received any complaints as blatant as these," he said.
Sawyers was arrested on January 30 during a raid led by Deputy Supt. Derrick Knight and was held for three weeks with no charges laid against him. He was released after Paulette Williams, Senior Resident Magistrate, gave the police an ultimatum last week to charge him or release him.
Morgan said his association planned to meet with Supt. Newton Amos, head of the St. James Police Division, with a list of demands concerning the issue.
"We are going to want certain answers to certain questions," he said. "We want to know how many men are being held in various jails throughout St. James without charges, how long they have been held for, why they were detained and when are charges going to be laid against them."
Stating that in the past there had been a communication problem between the police and attorneys-at-law in St. James, Mr. Morgan said the meeting was expected to explore ways in which the two groups can better work together.
"We are also going to ask how we, as an association, can assist the police in turning the wheels of justice more efficiently," Mr. Morgan said.
"Our executive is to meet next Monday (today) and arising from that, we are going to set an agenda for a meeting (with the police) quite likely next week."
Mr. Morgan said that for the police to effectively combat crime they must enlist the assistance of citizens.
"The police are not going to get rid of crime unless they get information from the citizens," he noted. "If they abuse the very people they are trying to solicit information from, they are not going to succeed in their effort."
