Delays in mental evaluation of prisoners lead to cases being dropped – Court Superintendent

– says defendants often released without stabilised care

Criminal proceedings in Guyana are halted if the defendant is determined to be unfit to stand trial, and courts do not proceed unless the individual’s mental state has been evaluated.
At a recent symposium held by the Police Force, Chief Court Prosecutor for Regional Division 4 (A), Police Superintendent Shellon Daniels, pointed out that persons with mental illness are coming into the criminal justice system, but their needs are often being missed.

Despite being on the frontline, she said, most Police ranks are not trained to deal with persons with mental health problems. She also pointed out that, in keeping with their protocols, the arrest is made to institute the necessary charges without having those arrested mentally examined by a doctor
“Most times, these cases are filed before the court and then the evaluation of these persons is sought, either by the defence; well, most of the time, the prosecution would not make those applications, or the court would order that the accused persons be sent for an evaluation,” she pointed out.
While calling out the broken system used for sharing information between agencies, which results in the delay in prosecuting matters, she spoke of the challenges faced by Police prosecutors.
“Some of the challenges faced are the lengthy delay in having the defendant or accused persons evaluated by the psychiatrist…lengthy delays in having those evaluation reports prepared and reach the courts in a timely manner,” she told those gathered.
At this stage, Daniels noted that a decision has to be made on where the person would be kept. “Now, he has already passed through the court. Once he is before the court, the court’s duty is to remand that person to prison. And what I would normally ask is for the court to endorse the warrant ordering that he be examined by the psychiatrist.”
According to her, a psychiatrist would usually visit the prisons once per week, or sometimes twice per month, to hold sessions with inmates suffering from mental illness. However, in the absence of those visits, the prisoner would return to the court without receiving treatment.
Daniels has been tracking how often charges are dismissed/discharged because of the problems she referred to earlier. She alluded to instances where Police prosecutors have been “running up and down” to the Georgetown Public Hospital’s Psychiatric Department to uplift psychiatric reports on defendants. With this back and forth, the prosecutor would usually request that the matter be adjourned. According to her, when the magistrate is “fed up tolerating” the Police on adjournments, the matter is either dismissed or discharged, resulting in the complainant not receiving justice.
The defendant is then released from prison, and goes back into the public and continues to perpetrate similar crimes, or even more serious offences, she noted. She said that after the dismissal, some of these mentally-ill persons are arrested again, accused of beating strangers, breaking windshields, and even murder.
When this occurs, she added, “The Police get the blame.”
In concluding her presentation, Daniels expressed happiness that there has been an increase in the complement of psychiatrists, but urged that psychiatric reports be completed in a timely manner, so that prosecutors could determine early whether they would proceed with charges. (Feona Morrison)