Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

Stakeholders in the nation's justice system are being urged to make their views known to the Canadian Advisory Committee which is assisting the newly-formed Jamaican Justice Reform Task Force.

The task force is developing a comprehensive programme for the modernisation of the system.

Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe and Appeal Court Judge Seymour Panton are members of the task force. Professor Barrington Chevannes, director of the Centre for Public Safety and Justice, UWI, Mona, chairs the 28-member task force.

Several attorneys-at-law, police officers and jurors have welcomed the move for the modernisation and have pointed to some important areas that should not be overlooked.

The Canadian consultants would do well, they say, to have a look at the Corporate Area Coroner's Court, 79 Duke Street, just below Gordon House, and the Traffic Court on South Camp Road, central Kingston.

Apart from the deplorable conditions in which the staffers have to work at the Coroner's Court, it is not unusual for the Coroner and other officers of the court to have to go to the ground floor to take depositions from infirm witnesses who can't walk to the third floor, there being no elevator in the building.

Motorists have complained that the parking facilities at the Traffic Court are most inadequate. Even worse, they say, is the fact that there is an infant school next door which gives the impression that it is a school for the dumb, so constrained are the tots not to make any noise which could disturb the court - even during their play time.

Health hazards

A juror who last week attended at the Home Circuit Court in the Supreme Court building, King Street, downtown Kingston, pointed to strips of 'carpet' which were used for decoration on the walls below the air-conditioning units and remarked that they were 'health hazards' which should be removed immediately.

The 'carpets' have turned black with dust, and according to a member of the court staff, they have not been cleaned since they were installed several years ago.

Some lawyers, in an interview last week, welcomed the comprehensive justice system modernisation programme, which is being planned.

They said, however, that even prior to its implementation, the Supreme Court building could do with a well-needed gift — a fresh coat of paint to give it the semblance of the appearance of a building of civic importance, if not its real status as the centre of gravity of Jamaica's justice system.

Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe had promised a "people-friendly court" when he took over the helm of the judiciary 10 years ago; his promise has clearly not been realised. It has been reported that he will be retiring soon and so will not be in office when implementation of the task force's recommendations begins.

However, several lawyers have said that as a member of the task force for the modernisation of the justice system, he is in a position to bring his influence and vast experience to bear on the tenor and specifics of the reforms that need to be undertaken.

Justice Reform Task force Comprises: