(Trinidad Guardian) It costs the State almost $50 million a month to maintain 2,235 remand prisoners in T&T. Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi revealed the figure as his office began its national consultation on prison reform at City Hall, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
Refering to statistics complied by his office over the past six months, Al-Rawi claimed that taking into consideration the annual budgets of the Prisons Service, Judiciary, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and other criminal justice stakeholders, remand prisoners, who account for a little over 60 per cent of the prison population, cost the State between $20,000 and $25,000 a month each.
“That is a real figure to grapple with because coming out of this discussion we must decide what are we going to do about it. Are we prepared to make some hard and unpopular choices?” Al-Rawi asked.
He claimed the situation was exacerbated by the fact that 11 per cent of remand prisoners have been awaiting trial for over ten years, 11 per cent for between five and ten years and the rest for under five years.
“Productivity and efficiency are two of the tools that we are going to dig ourselves out of in difficult circumstances. Every single dollar matters in our country. There must be value for money considerations,” Al-Rawi said, as he noted that Government would be using the consultation to inform the public of its initiatives and solicit their opinions.
“What we have done is prepare certain legislative and operational interventions but we can’t drive that in a vacuum. We wish to have a consultative approach in relation to these issues, because it is high time the population understands the rationale of these proposed amendments.”
Noting there were currently 47 per cent vacancies in the Prisons Service and that the DPP’s office needs 90 more prosecutors to operate at full capacity, Al-Rawi said Government was currently focused on addressing the staffing issues.
“Monies have to be committed, interviews have to be done and the positions need to be filled,” Al-Rawi said.
Al-Rawi also said 42 per cent of the remand population were there on murder charges, 11 per cent for drug possession, seven per cent for sexual offences and 12 per cent for lesser offences, including child maintenance and traffic offences. He suggested that discussions be held on whether the decriminalisation of marijuana and lesser offences may help reduce the remand population as well as improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system.
“There are things called drugs. There are serious versions and some which society perceives as not so serious. I take no view one way or the other but let’s have a discussion T&T,” he said.
“A remand cell has nine people in it, four of whom are in for charges of murder and the rest there for possession of two joints of marijuana. They share the cell for two and three years and then you have to ask yourself if you are encouraging recidivism or criminality by association.”
He also revealed that of the country’s eight prison facilities, half are severely overcrowded, the Remand Yard facility at Golden Grove, Arouca, Tobago, Carrera Island and Port-of-Spain.
The Port-of-Spain remand was the worst, he said, as it currently houses 725 prisoners although it was designed to accommodate only 250. While he said constructing a new remand facility was an idea suggested in the past, Government’s initiatives would seek to reduce the population in remand and work on redistributing prisoners to less occupied locations.
He also said Government was in the process of constructing a remand court at the Golden Grove Prison, Arouca, in an attempt to reduce the cost of transporting prisoners for simple adjournments in the cases.
While he did not give details of the legislation being contemplated by his office, he gave some of the issues Government would be moving to address, including the viability of jury-less trials, plea bargaining, specialised courts and making the process of obtaining bail less stringent.
“How is a poor man with no land able get bail? Does he stay in jail for a long period of time for obscene language or maintenance, or is it time we accept cash deposits? Let’s give them a fighting chance,” Al-Rawi said to a round of applause from the audience.
In addition to new legislation, Al-Rawi said Government was moving to operationalise existing laws, including those for the electronic monitoring of prisoners and video recording of police interviews with suspects, which were partly the cause of trial delays due to legal objections.
“I am pleased to announce that we have operationalised the video recording systems and the National Security Council has put in orders for more. The Evidence Act just has to be amended for this to work,” he added.