Persons to be trained on restorative justice – AG Nandlall

– as public awareness session held in Region 5

As the Guyana Government pushes to curb the high prevalence crimes, a public awareness session on restorative justice was conducted for residents in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), where it was disclosed that persons across the country will be trained specifically to handle these cases.

Saturday’s awareness session was led by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, SC, at Latchmansingh Primary School, Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice. The exercise is part of a slew of activities under the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded Support for the Criminal Justice System (SCJS) programme, intended to popularise the concept of restorative justice.
Earlier this year, Parliament enacted the Restorative Justice Act as a measure to overcome prison overcrowding by reducing pre-trial detention, reducing recidivism and increasing the use of alternative sentencing, among other things.
At Saturday’s exercise, the Attorney General was accompanied by Director of Restorative Justice and former Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud. Government Member of Parliament for Region Five, Faizal Jaffarally, and SCJS Programme Director, Indira Anandjit, were also at the event.
During his remarks, AG Nandlall explained to the scores of citizens gathered for the awareness session that restorative justice is an approach to justice that seeks to repair the harm caused the offender, by providing an opportunity for the victim and the perpetrator to interrogate the issue which caused the problem and to make amends either by the payment of compensation or on such terms agreed upon by the parties. It is also intended to observe manifestations of deviant behaviour and to address them very early, long before they engage the formal legal system.

Significantly, restorative justice allows the lay public, such as community leaders, religious leaders, teachers, etc, to play a central role both in the formal legal system as well as outside of the legal system.
The Minister pointed out that in the formal legal system, cases will be referred either by the Magistrate or the Director of Public Prosecutions to trained restorative justice officers located within each Magisterial district and these persons will manage the engagement between the perpetrator and the victim.
In the non-formal legal system, teachers, for example, once properly trained, will be able to detect manifestations of problems in children’s behaviour in schools. They will be required to interrogate these situations to determine the root causes such as an abusive environment at home. Once the problem is detected, steps will be taken to address it at this early stage. This simple remedy can prevent a child from being prone to criminal conduct.

Nandlall noted that the concept is fairly new, and will allow the courts to make orders outside of the conventional penal nature of orders that it is now circumscribed to make, and explore a whole host of potential and opportunities to address in a real, practical and pragmatic way, the circumstances that may have led to criminal conduct and for that conduct to be rehabilitated and for compensation to be paid. He also clarified that the restorative justice concept is not open to all criminal offences but a few minor, petty offences which can be dealt with at a community level and allow for direct rehabilitative intervention. In this regard, offences such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, sexual offences, offences involving minors, and other violent offences are exempted from restorative justice.
The Attorney General went on to outline that the concept of restorative justice allows for justice to be served in a way that promotes healing and accountability, while also reducing recidivism and keeping individuals out of prison who may not need to be there. He stressed that the approach can only work through support from members of the community and solicited their assistance to see the success of the programme.
On this note, the Legal Affairs Minister told the residents of Region Five that this is only the first of many engagements and that the Director of Restorative Justice will return with a training programme to train suitable qualified persons who are willing to participate in the programme.
Meanwhile, Persaud informed the residents that he is currently executing a pilot project involving several communities on the East Coast of Demerara. Once that pilot is successfully completed, the system will be replicated across the other administrative regions of the country.
During Saturday’s awareness session, members of the public were given the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarity on restorative justice.
With the enactment of the Restorative Justice Act in November 2022, a Restorative Justice Centre was established in April 2023, which is staffed by trained professionals who will work with victims, offenders, and their communities to develop individualised plans that focus on repairing the harm caused by criminal behaviour and preventing further offences.
Teachers, community leaders, Toshaos and religious leaders have already benefited from this training. The training exercise will continue across Guyana. A similar outreach exercise is scheduled to be held in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) before the end of August.