Senior Reporter
anna-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt
Judicial officials yesterday admitted T&T’s crime rate is too high.
“We have a problem,” Judiciary Court Planning Director, Anderson Gordon, told a a Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security yesterday.
“The crime rate is too high and matters take much longer than we would like to be completed.”
Pointing to a backlog at the level of the courts and the time it took to dispose of matters, he said, “If we are to improve performance, we think it is important to look at the whole process to take a systems approach.”
Presenting a comprehensive view of the challenges the Judiciary currently faces, Gordon said in addition to the high crime rate, T&T is also facing a high domestic violence rate; a larger than expected criminal caseload at the Children Court; a much lower than desired rate for completion of matters; a large pending criminal caseload; and lengthy delays in the courts due to a significant number of adjournments.
Gordon said, however, that they were working on enhancing delivery and reducing delays and backlogs.
“These we recognise require re-engineering, data-driven management and collaboration,” he said.
Saying the Judiciary had divisionalised itself in a bid to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness, Gordon said different rules, systems, processes, personnel training and tools were necessary to achieve success.
“The Judiciary has also worked on decluttering the magistracy,” he said.
In outlining how the Judiciary could improve its operations, Gordon said an abolition of preliminary inquiries (PIs) was at the top of the list.
Asked by JSC chairman Keith Scotland if the Judiciary had considered restorative justice as a means of improving the criminal justice system, Court Executive Administrator, Master Christie-Anne Morris-Alleyne, said, “Yes, we would, most definitely. The question of course and the devil is in the details.”
On the issue of over incarceration, she said there are too many people on remand or as part of their sentence.
Appealing for more support services to address this issue, Morris-Alleyne rubbished public claims that judges were simply opening jail doors and allowing persons accused of murder to access bail and their freedom.
Providing statistics to corroborate her answer, she said:
In May 2022 – 27 matters were listed while only six were granted.
In June 2022 – 87 were listed, three were granted.
In July 2022 – 70 were listed, four were granted.
In August 2022 – 67 were listed, four were granted.
In September 2022 – 65 were listed, five were granted.
In October 2022 – 38 were listed, two were granted.
In November 2022 – 46 were listed, three were granted.
In December 2022 – 53 were listed, five were granted.
In January 2023 – 58 were listed, none granted.
In February 2023 – 54 were listed, three granted.
In March 2023 – 61 were listed, three granted.
In April 2023 – 46 were listed, one granted; and in May 2023 – 26 were listed and none granted.
Responding to questions by Minister in Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Gender and Child, Affairs Ayanna Webster-Roy, on the overwhelming number of cases before the court involving children, Deputy Court Executive Administrator Wendy Lewis-Callender said the Children Court opened in 2018 and up to April 2023, they had registered over 4,500 matters.
She said this large volume was a clear indication of the need for the problem-solving court.
She said there was a need to identify and introduce early interventions to address why there was so much conflict, noting time and finances had to be invested to ensure this was properly resolved.
Asked what recommendations she could offer to improve the relationship between the Children’s Authority (CA) and the Judiciary, Morris-Alleyne revealed the current strain between the two.
“It’s not been going as well as it should be and I think it is because the Children’s Authority found itself inundated and in an effort to not sink under the sheer weight of the volume...they have sort of pulled back on the nature and extent of their interventions,” she revealed.
Saying this was not the answer, she shared, “The authority needs to do what the authority was set up to do, and the resources need to be provided.
“There are orders made by the court that the authority is not obeying, and they may come back to court and say ‘well, you know you told us to place the child at such and such but we didn’t have a place to put the child’.”
Morris-Alleyne urged officials to find the resources to get this part of the system working as it should and not rely on the NGOs and FBOs to fix the issue.
“We really need a serious collaborative effort for the well-being of our children because we are seeing what’s happening, and a child today, not properly dealt with and not understood, and whose problems are not addressed is going to be someone tomorrow, who is going to be a lifelong criminal.”