The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Roger Gaspard, has admitted that T&T’s criminal justice system is on the edge of a precipice and in a crisis.
He said the “sluggishness” at which the system has been managing cases was not something “to be proud of.” He continues: “And I would tell you for my own part I feel particularly embarrassed by the pedestrian nature of proceedings in Trinidad and Tobago. I, by no way want to convey to you any impression that the Director of Public Prosecutions office is beyond blame.”
He appealed to all stakeholders in the system that they “must embrace blame since invariably accused persons do not put themselves in the custody of the State.”
On Thursday, Gaspard spoke at length about the state of the country’s criminal justice system at a panel discussion titled Remand Justice—God’s Law at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus.
Members of the public, who posed questions to Gaspard, described the system as flawed.
Stating that this was a problem that would affect us all, Gaspard said he keeps hearing of voice of singer Ella Andall who sang the “missing generation and that if we are not careful they (criminals) would find us. Even though you feel you might be living in your gated community, from my experience, and from the files I have seen, they continue to have the potential to find us. And if they are as unmerciful as the system sometimes appear to be, it will not end.”
He empathised with prisoners in remand who have been waiting long periods for their day in court.
While greater focus is now being placed on the views of the relatives of victims of crime, Gaspard said “what I find happening in this society, more often than not, is that, the voices of victims of crime tend to be placed on the back burner in considering this whole matter of remand justice, the criminals justice system and delay. Do not for a moment construe what I am saying as though I am being an apologist for the system. I am saying categorically that to have persons in Remand Yard who are presumed innocent and who have to wait inordinately long periods of time for a trial cannot be justified in any society, which has a reasonable respect for the rights of freedom of individuals.”
Prisoners who are presumed innocent and who may feel they are not getting a fair chance with the system, Gaspard said, were unlikely, upon release, to obey the law, as they would feel justice was not served.
In his view, Gaspard said until a proper formula can be worked out among stakeholders, people in custody cannot be released.
Gaspard questioned if a person is released if a conviction would be recorded against them.
“If persons are released in circumstances which erroneously suggest that they have no criminals record, even though they may have committed a crime, is that a system that you would commend to your good self and society?”
He said no self-respecting DPP would press charges on people after they were kept in remand for greater periods than their sentence was likely to be.
There were instances, Gaspard said where individuals have eight to ten matters pending for similar offences “which would mean that while these persons would have been on bail for offence number one, the person would have committed offence number two and still go on to get bail for offences three and four all the way to number ten. How does that happen? The politician may have very well felt that because of the fact that this was happening it was time to remove judicial discretion and try to legislate perhaps more robustly in the area of bail.”
In doing so, Gaspard said one has to have regard for the whole proportionality issue which finds itself in our Constitution and which most law makers seem to glide over.
Gaspard called on the Law Association, Criminal Bar Association, Legal Aid and the DPP’s office to meet to give this issue special consideration.
“Since from all that I can see, the criminal justice system is in a crisis. And we are twiddling virtually on the edge of a precipice.”
He suggested that instead of increasing the complement of judges, magistrates and legal aid attorneys, establish a public offenders office.
“Instead of thinking about matters involving criminal procedures, rules and robust case management many persons are panicking and sometimes we are led into that panic-stricken state by some of the politicians. So you would find that some people by way of a band-aid may think that the best way to deal with an issue like this is to remove judicial discretion as far as it pertains to the granting of bail.”
In trying to fix the system, Gaspard said one can not lose sight “to the extent where you are passing laws which might not be reasonably justified in a system with proper respect for the rights and freedoms of individuals.”
Gaspard said there exists a ministerial committee and criminal justice reform committee, which falls under the purview of the Chief Justice that meets periodically to deal with the delays in the system and remanded offenders who are presumed innocent.
He said the work of this committee perhaps “needs to bring to the public in such a way where they are apprising of the public would preclude persons from assuming that people are working in silos.” Some of the recommendations Gaspard put forward was that a remand court be established, people should consider that more people be allowed their own bail in circumstances where they would been in custody for more than the time they would have been sentenced for and electronic monitoring of prisoners be introduced.
“We must pay attention to each cog in the wheel to institutional and systematic problems.”