For­mer chair­man of the Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion, Gre­go­ry Delzin, SC, wants the com­mis­sion to be re-es­tab­lished.

The de­funct Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion was a body es­tab­lished by an act of Par­lia­ment to con­duct re­search in­to the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice, make rec­om­men­da­tions for change, de­vel­op sen­tenc­ing guide­lines for of­fences and ad­vise on max­i­mum penal­ties.

Delzin’s call for the re-es­tab­lish­ment of the com­mis­sion comes on the heels of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s crit­i­cism over bail be­ing giv­en to a kid­nap­per re­cent­ly.

Dur­ing a post-Cab­i­net meet­ing at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, White­hall, on Fri­day, Row­ley called out the courts for not giv­ing more se­vere penal­ties for heinous crimes. He said could not fath­om how some­one could be placed on bond for a crime like kid­nap­ping for ran­som.

Row­ley said, “Kid­nap­ping for ran­som! One of the most heinous crimes and I saw a per­son walk­ing out of the cour­t­house on a bond and to make the bond palat­able, they were told that if you mis­be­have, you will be made to pay $50,000.”

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions af­ter be­ing con­ferred se­nior coun­sel sta­tus at Pres­i­dent’s House, St Ann’s, yes­ter­day, Delzin said re­in­stat­ing the com­mis­sion could al­low it to ad­vise Par­lia­ment on ways to change the law.

Delzin said, “I would love for it to be restart­ed be­cause the work of the Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion is to in­form Par­lia­ment on a lot of the leg­is­la­tion that they’re deal­ing with now. Part of the man­date of the Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion was ac­tu­al­ly to go in­to com­mu­ni­ties and deal with as­pects of the law and sen­tences that would im­pact com­mu­ni­ties, to take com­mu­ni­ties on board and al­so to ad­vise the Par­lia­ment and the ex­ec­u­tive on ways to change the law. It’s a pity that the Sen­tenc­ing Com­mit­tee hasn’t been re­ac­ti­vat­ed.”

In 2019, Delzin com­plained that the Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion was plagued with many ob­sta­cles, in­clud­ing lack of funds.

At the time, he said the long-term goal of the com­mis­sion was to en­sure a close con­nec­tion be­tween the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice and the facts on the ground.

How­ev­er, the com­mis­sion was not reap­point­ed dur­ing the pan­dem­ic.