House ponders tougher sentences, bail revision
Published:Thursday | June 3, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
DEBATE ON the six anti-crime bills heralded by the Golding administration as critical legislative tools in the fight against the rising crime wave affecting the country started yesterday in Gordon House.
The companion pieces legislation were crafted to send a strong signal to the criminal underworld, particularly thugs in possession of firearms and those who use them to carry out heinous acts of violence. An act to amend the Firearms Act proposes a minimum of 15 years' imprisonment for persons convicted of possession of an illegal gun.
Eighty per cent of the murder victims last year died at the hands of gunmen. There was a record 1,680 murders in 2009.
Piloting the far-reaching legislative measures in Parliament yesterday, Prime Minister Bruce Golding argued that the bill would send a powerful message to persons intent on committing crimes.
"... Having an illegal firearm, using a firearm to commit a crime is a severe offence that is going to attract severe punishment," Golding stressed.
The most controversial of the bills - an act to make interim provision in relation to the grant of bail in specified circumstances - has been adjusted following sharp criticism from human-rights groups and the parliamentary Opposition. They were of the view that the bill would have negative implications for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Jamaicans, as set out in the Constitution.
The bill, in its original form, had given the police increased powers to detain a person charged with a serious offence for 60 days.
Seeking to strike a compromise, the prime minister yesterday told the House that changes were made to the bill.
The new bill, which has a sunset clause, still proposes a 60-day detention period. However, in the adjusted proposed statute, a person detained by the police would now be taken before a judge seven days after he was held.
A judge would review the matter and decide whether the detainee should be released.
"If he is not released, he must be taken back before the court at intervals of 14 days. If at the end of the 60 days the person was not charged, he has to be released," Golding said.
Provisions in this legislation relate to violent offences and drug-related crimes. However, in the case of a drug offence, only repeat offenders would be detained for the 60 days.
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