Study on alternatives to pre-trial detention commences

Prison overcrowding

An international expert hired through the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP) is in Guyana to conduct a study on alternatives to pre-trial detention. This is in response to the many problems that have been associated with overcrowding in the nation’s prisons. Peter Pursglove met with Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan on Wednesday where he briefed him on the recently commissioned study that seeks “to explore and present alternatives to pre-trial detention that are harmonious with criminal justice processes in Guyana.”

A statement from the Ministry on Thursday noted that Pursglove’s work is

expected to contribute to a reduction in prison overcrowding with an aim of preventing further criminalisation of youths.

The Public Security Minister opined that the study is timely, especially with the recent event which saw inmates setting on fire a mattress at the Juvenile Detention Centre, Sophia, earlier this week. Minister Ramjattan was said to have emphasised the need for the study to include juvenile holding facilities, further expressing his “eagerness at receiving viable and sustainable solutions” to the many challenges that plague the country’s prison system.

The consultant’s tasks include conducting initial meetings with key stakeholders and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of Guyana’s approach to the provision of alternatives to incarceration, along with opportunities for reform and development. The Public Security Ministry disclosed that the study will review and make recommendations on matters pertaining to and identifying dy to include j for the study to include Juvenile detenthe penal system.ion Centre, Sophia. sentencing policy; discretion available to Judges, Magistrates, Police and Prosecutors; capacity of probation and other systems of supervision of non-custodial sanctions including possible collaboration with civil society organisations; restorative justice; and “decriminalising certain acts”.

Pursglove is a Senior Counsel in Trinidad and Tobago who has been a barrister for 36 years with experience as an advocate and practitioner in three jurisdictions. He has also advised Ministers of Justice, Attorneys General and Prime Ministers in several Commonwealth Member States in Africa, the Caribbean and in the Pacific region. His areas of speciality include sentencing reform, judicial-sector reform, rule of law issues, justice and security, human rights, constitutional reform and anti-corruption.

The study Pursglove will conduct comes just over a year since a report was submitted on the findings of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the deadly Camp Street Prison riots which left 17 inmates dead. That report was handed over to President David Granger on June 1, 2016. At that time, Government was urged to quickly implement the recommendations.

The CoI Commissioners, led by retired Justice James Patterson, had observed that overcrowding was a major problem, with some 60 per cent of inmates at the Camp Street Prison being on remand at the time the report was compiled. The actual figures showed that 604 of 1014 of those prisoners were on remand awaiting trial.

“The consequent backlog of cases in the High Court has reached astronomic proportions and there is no sign of a downward trend anytime soon,” the report noted, adding that the judicial system did not either implement or make public its steps to reduce this backlog. In December 2016, Government had set aside over $350 million for expansion works at the Mazaruni Prisons, in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), to accommodate more inmates to reduce overcrowding at Camp Street.

Also in late 2016, the Legal Affairs Ministry had embarked in consultations with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on developing alternative sentencing as part of measures to reduce overcrowding.

“The whole idea is to try to weed out these offences that are clogging up (the prisons). Sometimes some people who are there for a six-month sentence could have had some other sentence,” subject Minister Basil Williams had explained.

Another point observed in the Camp Street CoI Report was that there was a huge disparity in the ratio of remand to convicted prisoners. It went on to call for more enforcement of the Bail Act as bail is a constitutional right afforded to prisoners with the exception of murder, treason or the possibility of the accused being a flight risk. However, often times when many prisoners are bailed for smaller offences, they are remanded to prison as they can’t afford to post bail. This too has contributed to overcrowding.

Major alternatives to pre-trial sentencing include community service and requiring offenders to attend classes and enter programmes relating to their offence which could prevent reoffending. Funding for the CSSP alternatives to pre-trial detention study was acquired from the IDB.