In 2010 the issue of crime was the greatest dilemma and concern for the vast majority of the population. With this knowledge Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar, leader of the People's Partnership, vowed to attack the problem by introducing and embarking upon several initiatives which would severely impact upon this crime scourge within the first 100 days, should they form the next government.
Amongst the proposed initiatives within their crime plan was to introduce a ministry of justice, closely mimicking a UK ministry by the same name. Under the purview of this new ministry, to which billions of tax dollars are committed annually, fall the courts and prisons, where the clear mandate was to secure reform of the fast-failing criminal justice system.
This was not limited to the outdated and unproductive existing operation of the prisons nationwide, which continues to provide fertile ground for an explosion of magnetic proportions, a snippet of which was witnessed at the Royal Gaol in the middle of a busy downtown Port-of-Spain.
Five years and two months later, what can the fourth Minister of Justice claim to have achieved in his new ministry? Why has the overcrowding and inhumane existing conditions within the prisons remained unaddressed, even after a facility was purchased at a Santa Rosa, Arima, location for almost $300 million? Why are prisons officers and support staff still subjected to work within the confines of a dehumanising and dangerous environment on a daily basis?
Is real reform of our justice system impossible, an effort in futility? Perhaps it simply is that the powers that be are less interested in securing the necessary changes that would promote a better functioning system.
Prof Ramesh Deosaran recently revealed that under his tenure as Chairman of the Police Service Commission, several recommendations, after intensive studies and investigations were completed, were presented to the Government, which should have resulted in positive and meaningful changes improving the existing system.
Such recommendations however failed to prompt the Government to act with urgency and today we see the result of such inaction–the near collapse of our criminal justice system.
The Ministry of Justice failed in it's charge. A new Ministry of Defence under the same administration is doomed to suffer the same fate.
Luana Lezama
Arima