RECENT NEWS events have served to focus attention on the inadequacies of Jamaica's judicial system as the root cause of a number of emerging and ongoing problems confronting the nation. Other specifics of the United States State Department's report on human trafficking aside, Jamaica's reduction to Tier III status ultimately comes down to our failure to prosecute and convict offenders. This is somewhat ironic since our judicial system is patently inept in getting murder convictions, getting rid of rotten cops and getting on top of crime generally. Allegations of human trafficking have now taken their place in the queue.
After the scandal of abuse of children in the custody of the State, which was exposed some two years ago, only now has the DPP advised the police to lay charges against four alleged offenders. And who knows if the evidence will stand up to scrutiny, and how long it will take before a verdict is known? In civil matters it is taking up to four years to get a trial date. When cases go to the Court of Appeal and a final decision made, announcement of the judgement often languishes in some bureaucratic limbo and it can take up to two years for litigants to know who has won and who has lost. Justice delayed is justice denied, and it must be obvious to the Government that people are taking the law into their own hands because the State judicial apparatus seems to be paralysed.
We think that political will and a sense of urgency rather than lack of funds is why we seem to be getting nowhere with judicial reform. Years ago the Police Executive Research Forum report recommended that legislation be passed to make plea-bargaining more effective in criminal cases.
While it is not without its faults, experience in the United States of America shows that it is an important link in the criminal justice system there. Apparently, some of our judges here have their misgivings and several lawyers are opposed to its introduction. But while we continue to argue in theory about the ethics of such a system, our courts remain so clogged that in the end justice is defeated anyway.
The norms by which the performance of governance is judged rely ultimately on the judicial system of a country. We had better take more urgent steps to improve the disgraceful present state of affairs or we can expect more damning reports about the country's judicial system, much of which we will hardly be in a position to refute.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
