NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
Justice Courtney Daye inspects a guard of honour at the opening of the Home Circuit Court, downtown Kingston, in March last year. The justice system will undergo a five-year reform programme.Government yesterday announced that a comprehensive reform of the justice system would be undertaken and given priority budgetary support in the 2006/07 financial year.
A statement out of the three-day Cabinet retreat being held at the Couples Sans Souci resort in St. Mary, said the reform would be based on three pillars: access, quality and speed. The five-year reform programme will be spearheaded by a reform unit to be established in the Ministry of Justice.
The announcement to reform the justice system comes amid criticisms by local rights groups that the justice system
is faulty. This follows the recent acquittal of six policemen accused of murdering four persons during a police operation at Kraal Clarendon in May 2003. The police were members of the then Crime Management Unit (CMU) led by Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams.
The Kraal case follows the Braeton murder trial in February last year in which six policemen, attached to the Reneto Adams-led CMU, were set free of the charge of murdering seven young men at Braeton in Portmore, St. Catherine, on March 14, 2001.
Recently, a row has erupted between Dr. Carolyn Gomes, head of human rights watchdog, Jamaicans For Justice, and Kent Pantry, Director of Public Prosecution, over the latter's ruling in the Michael Gayle case. Gayle, who was mentally challenged died on August 23, 1999, after being beaten by a joint police/military patrol. The DPP subsequently ruled that no one should be charged for Gayle's death.
Noted attorney-at-law Glen Cruickshank, in a Letter to The Editor last month, called for a public debate on the justice system, noting that the debate should be devoid of partisan politics "and should involve not only members of the legal profession, but civil society as well".
"Yes, we need to have more judges both at the Supreme and Appellate Court levels. Yes, we have a long way to go before we can be totally satisfied, but let the debate begin before we throw out the baby with the bath water," he said in his letter voted Letter of the Month for December by a panel of Gleaner editors.
new courthouses
Cabinet has also approved plans by the Justice Ministry to construct new courthouses, rehabilitate existing ones and to regionalise the Supreme Court during the new financial year. The regionalisation of the Supreme Court will result in the establishment of three regional centres in St. Ann, St. James and Manchester and an improvement in access and case turn over, while the Justice Training Institute will be expanded and court reporters introduced in Resident Magistrate's Courts in September 2006.
The Ministry of Justice also plans to introduce case flow management systems to improve timeless and address backlog of cases. This will involve the introduction of continuous sittings of Circuit Courts.
Last May, the Jamaican Bar Association called for a comprehensive reform of the justice system. The association proposed an audit of the backlog of civil and criminal cases; the appointment of judges and staff or the use of other measures to ease the backlog; and the creation of a budget and timeframe for improving the administration of justice.
Yesterday's report from the Cabinet retreat disclosed that the justice ministry would design a fee structure in matters of criminal and civil jurisdictions, including cases where custodial sentences are imposed. In addition, the Prime Minister said that the State must be prepared to fund the needed improvements in the justice system.
