Golding: Mandatory minimum sentencing will burden prison system
Published:Friday | November 10, 2023 | 12:06 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
OPPOSITION LEADER Mark Golding is voicing fresh concerns that mandatory minimum sentences for murder and firearms offences could result in an overburdening of Jamaica’s prison system, which has previously been criticised for its various issues to include overcrowding and poor conditions of holding areas.
Speaking to journalists during a tour of communities in the St James Southern constituency on Wednesday, Golding predicted that the implementing of mandatory minimum sentences will undermine the option for accused persons to get discounted sentences in exchange for early guilty pleas, resulting in increased numbers of cases going to trial.
“Whereas the average duration of a prisoner in Jamaica across all offences, from minor to major, is in the region of three years, that is going to be a much higher number going forward. How are they all going to fit (in prison), and where are the rehabilitation programmes to try and reorient these people who have committed crimes, so that when they come back into society, they are no longer a threat to the rest of us? The consequences of these measures need to be thought through and implemented,” said Golding.
“We all understand the need to be firm when it comes to dealing with serious criminal offences, but we also need to think through the impact and implications of changing the rules in this way, for example, the backlog in the criminal justice system as a result of reforms that I implemented as the Minister of Justice, to encourage guilty persons to plead guilty and get a discount so that they get out of the court system and into the prison system much quicker,” he said.
“You are going to have many more cases that would have been dealt with through a guilty plea, now going to trial in the gun court and so on, and the court system is going to be overwhelmed by that,” Golding warned.
OVERALL STRATEGY
In February this year, when Justice Minister Delroy Chuck tabled the Offences Against the Person (Amendment) Bill and the Criminal Justice (Administration) (Amendment) Bill, Golding warned that the bills would result in a spike of case backlogs in the courts.
Similar concerns were voiced one month later by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, who posited that the Government’s proposal to increase mandatory minimum sentences would not inspire accused persons to plead guilty.
Under the Offences Against the Person (Amendment) Bill, Chuck is proposing amendments to Section 3(1)(b) to increase the mandatory minimum sentence from 15 years to 45 years.
Where a capital murder has been committed, he has proposed that the mandatory minimum sentence to be served before being eligible for parole moves from 20 years to 50 under (3(1C)(a).
It is also being proposed to amend Section 42(F) of the Criminal Justice (Administration) Act by increasing the term of years to be deemed as life imprisonment from 30 years to 50 years where the offence committed is murder.
Commenting further on the issue on Wednesday, Golding proposed that one way to curtail the potential straining of the prison system is to take proactive measures in keeping young people away from criminal influences.
“Why is it that we have so many young people going into criminal activity? What is happening in the early childhood and primary schools that results in children matriculating to secondary school and they are not ready for it, and they leave with nothing to show for it? These are the ones that are vulnerable to being swayed into crime, and we need to have an overall strategy that deals with both sides of the problem,” said Golding.